来自英国牛津、剑桥、布里斯托以及爱丁堡等四所大学的科学家目前正在进行一项改变气候工程，计划将一个巨型氦气球投放在空中，通过软管向其输送化学粒子，希望这些粒子可以将太阳光反射回太空从而达到为地球降温的效果。

Floating 12 miles above our heads, this Wembley Stadium-sized helium balloon tethered to a ship may one day help save the planet from global warming.
Floating 12 miles above our heads, this Wembley Stadium-sized helium balloon tethered（用绳或链拴住） to a ship may one day help save the planet from global warming.

British scientists are investigating whether an ordinary hosepipe（软管） can be used to shoot particles into the atmosphere – like an erupting volcano – and cool down Earth.

A prototype balloon has been built and will be hoisted¹（升起，举起） into the air next month from a disused airfield² in Norfolk in a £200,000 experiment.

The idea is that millions of tiny chemical particles will act as a mirror and reflect the Sun’s rays to stop the planet heating up.

Produced by scientists at Oxford³, Cambridge, Bristol and Edinburgh Universities, the 660ft-long balloons would be positioned far out to sea if the plan is approved.

They say just ten balloons – pouring ten million tons of material into the stratosphere every year – could achieve a 2c drop in global temperature in two years.

Next month’s test will use a smaller, 62ft balloon, suspended about half a mile above the ground and using a hose（软管） to pump out harmless water droplets⁴ to see if the technology works.

Details of the £1.6million three-year project, funded by a Government grant, were presented at the British Science Festival at the University of Bradford.

Dr Matt Watson of Bristol University, who is leading the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering project, said: ‘We are doing a feasibility study（可行性研究） only to see if it will work, we are not advocating it as a good idea.’

Volcanoes, which pump clouds of sulphate（硫酸盐） droplets into the sky when they erupt, have been shown to cool the climate.

Environmental groups warn geo-engineering may prevent global efforts to reduce carbon emissions⁵ and may affect the ozone⁶ layer and rainfall.