About this episode
Roderick Hyde discusses his innovative approach to solar geoengineering using high-altitude hoses.
Roderick Hyde discusses his recent paper on using high-altitude hoses for solar geoengineering. While most proposals focus on aircraft delivery, Hyde revisits an older but largely dismissed concept. He describes suspending a 20 km hose by balloons to continuously pump sulfur-bearing fluids into the stratosphere, and argues that advances in modern materials and engineering may overcome past barriers. The conversation covers the technical hurdles such as wind dynamics, hose stability, extreme pressures, and material stress, as well as design variations for pumping H₂S as liquid or gas. Hyde explains how streamlining, intermediate pumps, and lightweight aero-shrouds could make the system viable. The discussion also highlights the potential advantages of this approach, including affordability, continuous operation, and scalability. While a single hose could not halt global warming, Hyde suggests that a distributed network of ~20 installations could offset warming from CO₂, offering a near-term, low-cost option to buy time while longer-term climate solutions take effect. Paper: Hyde, R. A. (2025). A Planetary Cooling Hose. arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.07985…
People in this episode
Host: Andrew Lockley
Guest: Roderick Hyde
Topics covered
- solar geoengineering
- high-altitude hoses
- climate solutions
- technical hurdles
- material engineering
Keywords
- geoengineering
- sulfur-bearing fluids
- stratosphere
- climate change
- H₂S
- affordability
- scalability
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: arXiv
Books & works: A Planetary Cooling Hose
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