I’ve never been one for catastrophe theories.

You know the ones you see in films like The Day After Tomorrow? I always like to think that there is a solution to every problem and I like to be optimistic about the future.

I recently read a very interesting article by the BBC’s science correspondent Pallab Ghosh. It was about a new research centre set up by scientists at Cambridge University’s Carbon Neutral Futures Initiatives, called the Centre for Climate Repair.

Basically a team of engineers and social scientists are looking into ways to reverse climate change and repair the Earth’s climate. Now, that sounded like something out of a science fiction film to me!

And, of course, I started asking myself millions of questions, not just as to how this would be possible, but whether an invasive approach would be ethical.

Ideas mentioned in the article included refreezing the poles. Explained in simple terms, scientists would look at pumping seawater up to tall masts to inject particles of salt into the clouds. This would make them more widespread and reflective, cooling the areas below them.

I found this idea incredibly clever, but it also terrified me. Would this have an impact on wildlife? Will there be any adverse effects?

The planet’s climate has changed considerably over the millennia (think of the Ice Age), isn’t it just the natural way our planet evolves and changes?

Another idea scientists will explore is the greening of the oceans so they can take up more CO2. Basically the sea would be fertilised with iron salts to promote the growth of plankton.

The article did say that previous experiments hadn’t been successful but new systems could be explored. This really troubled me – would it not disrupt the ecosystem?

My questions might be silly, but I think they are legitimate. Anyone who cares about the environment will want to know that the positive effects would outweigh the negative ones.

Peter Wadhams, a professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, said that by reducing our emissions, all we are doing is making the global climate warmer a bit more slowly. I surely didn’t think I would see scientists having to deal with this problem in my lifetime, but I guess I better get my head around it. Reduce, reuse, recycle – ocean greening!