We have had an open debate for several decades now about all the changes in our world’s weather. This spring has been no exception. Tornados by the dozens wreaking havoc all across our nation. Wild fires in the west were burning thousands of acres, not to mention the homes. Is there something going on physically that is causing unnatural weather for us?

My inquiry began when my son-in-law sent me a book he found fascinating. It was science fiction, not normally my type of reading. The book was entitled Project Hail Mary. Now it is appearing as the number one best seller on several lists and has a movie just out. I read all 500 plus pages and must admit the author, Andy Weir, knows a lot more about space and the planets than I.

The theory without spoiling the read is that a space ship is sent to a far away planet with one simple mission. Discover how we can stop our sun from being destroyed by a substance known as Astrophage. The idea was to find a way from having our sun destroyed within a few years from this substance. Just so you know, there is no such substance as of today.

The chance that our only heating and light source could be deteriorating by a method that we might have a chance to reverse is pretty amazing. But isn’t our predicament just the opposite? We seem to be heating up with our polar ices melting and all our sea levels rising. Some say in a matter of time, Miami may be under the Atlantic.

With the contents of Project Hail Mary still in my head, I read of a startup company beginning to release particles into the atmosphere in order to tweak our climate. The process is geoengineering as a deliberate effort to manipulate our climate by launching certain particles into our atmosphere, reflecting more sunlight back into space.

We have experienced a modified form of this when we have had major volcanic eruptions which cover substantial parts of the earth with dense clouds of volcanic discharge. I do remember when Iceland could not launch airplanes for weeks due to this condition. But it went away. It did, however, lead some to think that sufficient quantities of sulfur and similar particles could potentially ease our global warming by partially blocking some of our sun’s rays.

Scientists agree that it would not be difficult to release such compounds into our stratosphere but have refrained from trying this. Would such an experiment work, or could the earth be further damaged with a widespread attempt? Not knowing the long-term effects and possible dangerous side effects has virtually stopped them from making such an attempt.

Now comes a company known as Make Sunsets, moving forward, launching certain particles into the atmosphere, testing this blockage of sun rays. Unfortunately, these launches from a site in Mexico have little or no public scrutiny. And there is another side to all this. The possibility of an IPO of the company coming with possible gigantic infusions of capital. The co-founder of the company, Luke Iseman, has acknowledged that the efforts of the company are part entrepreneurial, and part to drive the public debate on such possible contamination and the further testing of this element of science.

No doubt, this company and its founders may well be criticized and even harassed by the geoengineering community, but the founder believes that with climate change such a threat, our world has to start moving to address the issue.

But is it an issue? One side of our political divide calls climate change nothing more than a political threat against the Republican side of our country. Some of the modern ideas of how to eliminate or at least lower our pollution of our world are objected to as non-sensical.

In thinking more about Project Hail Mary, problems with one’s sun has to be a top priority for the continued existence of our planet. If we go back to the founding of our country, there were less than a million residents, and now we have well over 300 million. We use products like gasoline and natural gas like there is no limit to supply. Back then neither was really used at all. Think of the quantity of fuel we use each day and how dependent we are on it. It will run out, and scientists have already turned to the sun for help with solar panels and the weather with windmills to replace what will be gone at some point. This threat of running out will probably not happen in most of our lives, but our descendants may suffer.

So, the sun will be our savior in some ways. Unlike the book, the problem is here and not on the sun. While I have no desire to invest in Make Sunsets, I do hope that its efforts are monitored for two reasons. First, if it works, keep developing. Second, if it causes more damage to our world than good, make sure this practice of shooting particles of chemicals into our atmosphere is halted. We have enough smog.

· Dennis Marek can be contacted at llamalaw23@gmail.com.