Pick one of the Geoengineering ideas described in the figure above.What are the advantages and disadvantages of the method you chose? Do you think we should try it? GEOENGINEERING SOLUTIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGEIron fertilizationof seaPumpliquid CO₂to deep seaShoot aerosolsto stratosphereGrowtrees.Place giantreflectorsin orbitPump liquidCO, into rocksGeneticallyengineer cropsGreening.of desertsFigure 11.1: Various geoengineering schemes that have been proposed by scientists.Credit: Mann & Kump, Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change, 2nd Edition© 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

Climate change is the long-term deviation in the atmosphere that leads to shifts in weather and temperature. Climate change is caused by global warming, which has become the reason for glacial melting, sea level rise, more frequent storms, drought, and several effects. We can modify climate change by applying geo-engineering solutions. Geoengineering is climate engineering that modifies, manipulates, and prevents climate change by slowing the process down.Advantages:Genetically engineered crops are also known by the name of genetically modified crops. With the climate change, the weather patterns could become extremely unpredictable. There could be increased instances of drought, flood etc. These modfied crops could be born to withstand these conditions. They can thus ensure food security in times of climate change. Also, these crops can ensure higher yields in shorter periods of time & smaller patches of land. The crops can be accordingly developed to tolerate high temperature, flood, attack from pests etc.Disadvantages:Genetically engineered crops also require a specific environment to grow, which might become difficult in times of climate change. This would be difficult in cases where the plants would require more water or specific temperature in places where there is less & the availability of water & presence of extreme temperatures. Now, these genetically engineered species often tend to compete with the native species & can thus have an effect on biodiversity. This can have & negative effects on the ecosystems & thus these ecosystems become much more vulnerable to climatic change. Another disadvantage to add to the list is the development of pesticide resistant weeds which can further increase the effects of climate change.As explained above, there are both advantages & disadvantages to the development of genetically engineered crops. The very idea of implementing it would depend on whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages or vice versa. There are some well known advantages such as greater yield, disease resistance, temperature resistance etc. The disadvantages include competition with the native species, development of pesticide resistant weeds etc.