For a while it seemed like switching to clean energy might be enough to stave off climate catastrophe. The U.S. government needs to start testing it now, before the climate system spins off into an even more disastrous state. This geoengineering would in many ways replicate a natural process that has been underway for probably billions of years. Here’s how it works: Iron-rich dust blows off the land and into the seas, fertilizing algae and plankton. Though growing deserts send more dust into the ocean, agricultural practices to preserve topsoil have the opposite effect, keeping dust out of the ocean and likely, in our opinion, contributing to more warming overall.

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Locations: United States, U.S