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# 1.1 What do we really mean by climate engineering?

Climate engineering is also known as geoengineering and the two terms are used interchangeably. Geoengineering can be defined as:

> …deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract human-caused climate change.

Shepherd (2009)

Several interesting techniques for engineering the climate have been proposed to counteract human-caused climate crisis.

There are several human causes of climate crisis, but one of the most important is emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas from activities such as burning fossil fuels, which enhances the greenhouse effect and warms the planet.

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OpenLearn - Could we control our climate?
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