Gregory Benford, physics professor at the university of California at Irvine, suggests several methods for combating the effects of global warming by reducing the amount of solar radiation absorbed in the lower atmosphere and at the earth's surface. Installing white roofs on houses and using light-colored materials or paint for parking lots and roadways would increase reflected solar radiation and reduce heat input to the climate system. Another alternative is to enrich jet fuel mixtures or in some way increase particulate output of jet engines to produce a layer of thin artificial clouds in the stratosphere which will reflect just the right amount of solar radiation to balance CO2 warming. Dr. Benford's ideas were given in an editorial in the Des Moines Register in early November 1997.
Questions
What would be the ancillary environmental effects of such actions?
Who would decide exactly how much cooling should be engineered (given the fact that we can't agree on how much warming has been produced)?
Who would take responsibility for the inevitable legal implications if some subsequent extreme weather events (natural or otherwise) are blamed on this engineered solution?