Global warming is an example of anthropogenic climate change, from industrially amplifying the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is an atmospheric phenomenon in which greenhouse gases - including carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor - absorb long-wave energy radiated from Earth's surface, effectively trapping the energy as heat and warming the climate. Without the greenhouse effect, Earth would be uninhabitable for humans; however, humans releasing excessive carbon dioxide into the atmosphere exacerbates the greenhouse effect, unnaturally warming the climate.

Solar geoengineering, or SRM, intends to increase albedo, the proportion of solar radiation reflected instead of absorbed, to quickly cool the planet (Burns et. al. 2019). While capable of effectively counteracting the warming itself, SRM fails to address greenhouse gases, the root cause of global warming.

There are many proposed SRM methods to reflect radiation at various layers of the atmosphere. Stratospheric aerosol injection involves releasing aerosols, such as sulphur dioxide, in upper layers of the atmosphere (Burns et. al. 2019). Marine cloud brightening involves using ships to spray saltwater into clouds above the ocean to make natural clouds denser, thus brighter (Burns et. al. 2019). Surface albedo enhancement involves increasing light colors on land, such as painting building roofs white.

There are many proposed methods for carbon sequestration, but the general idea is to mimic natural carbon cycle fluxes to return atmospheric carbon to the lithosphere, effectively minimizing the cause of anthropogenic climate change, greenhouse gases. By removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, carbon sequestration has the potential to dramatically slow some effects of climate change, including global warming and ocean acidification.

One sequestration method is carbon burial, in which carbon dioxide would be mechanically filtered out of the atmosphere and pumped it into geological structures deep underground as pressurized gas (Boyd).

Another proposed method is direct air capture (DAC). This process involves using scrubbing towers, or 'artificial trees'. These towers would utilize a pump to suck carbon dioxide-saturated air in, and then spray the gas with one of several possible chemical compounds, such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, and calcium hydroxide (Boyd). These particular chemicals can react with carbon dioxide, precipitating carbon out of the air as salts to be pumped into the lithosphere for storage.

The impact of artificially putting pressurized carbon dioxide gas or carbon salts in the lithosphere, especially at the rates necessary to effectively counter climate change, is unknown.