Geoengineering

Hedcut illustration of When Enoch’s enemies marched against the people, “the earth trembled, and the mountains fled… and the rivers of water were turned out of their course” (Moses 7:13). — When Enoch’s enemies marched against the people, “the earth trembled, and the mountains fled… and the rivers of water were turned out of their course” (Moses 7:13).

Geoengineering is the deliberate alteration of the Earth's climate on a planetary scale, usually to offset greenhouse warming. Its prefix is the Greek gē, "earth," and since a 2009 Royal Society report, it has been divided into methods that reflect sunlight and methods that draw carbon dioxide out of the air. Restoration scripture has a scene of the kind. When enemies marched against the people of Enoch, "he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course" (Moses 7:13). Critics call geoengineering playing God, yet the Book of Moses gives this power to a mortal and places it in a particular society, the city the Lord named Zion because its people were of one heart and mind and had no poor among them.

Reflecting the Sun

Sunlight reflection could cool the planet quickly and cheaply, which makes control of it the hardest question it raises.

Hedcut illustration of Critics raise concerns about how sunlight-reflecting methods would be controlled because outdoor testing has been contested and some trials were halted. — Critics raise concerns about how sunlight-reflecting methods would be controlled because outdoor testing has been contested and some trials were halted.

Stratospheric aerosol injection would loft sulfur dioxide or similar particles to scatter sunlight, and marine cloud brightening would whiten ocean clouds with salt spray. The UN Environment Programme puts the first at about $18 billion a year per degree of cooling, within one wealthy state's reach. Outdoor tests have stalled: Harvard abandoned its balloon experiment in 2024 after years of objections, the Saami Council's among them, and Mexico barred such experiments after a startup released sulfur-filled balloons there. Britain has nonetheless committed £57 million to the research, though hundreds of scholars back a call for non-use and the European Union has asked for a moratorium on deployment.

The Covenant of Seasons

Hedcut illustration of The promise that “seedtime and harvest… cold and heat, and summer and winter… shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22) contrasts with reflective aerosols that would need continuous maintenance. — The promise that “seedtime and harvest… cold and heat, and summer and winter… shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22) contrasts with reflective aerosols that would need continuous maintenance.

After the Flood, God promised the earth a dependable order, and sunlight reflection would place part of that order under continual human upkeep.

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Genesis 8:22). The verb rendered "cease," shabat, is the one from which the Sabbath takes its name, so the promise can be heard as a pledge that the seasons will keep no day of rest. Noah was asked for nothing to keep that covenant. By way of contrast, reflective aerosols settle out and must be replaced without a break for as long as greenhouse gases stay high. Andrew Parker and Peter Irvine found that if a large program stopped suddenly, temperatures could change up to four times faster than under climate change itself. This "termination shock" ties every nation's climate to the budgets and peace of whoever runs the program.

Famine in Place of the Sword

The Book of Mormon records a prophet altering a nation's weather, under conditions no modern program meets.

Nephi, the son of Helaman, was given power to smite the earth with famine, and to end a civil war he prayed, "O Lord, do not suffer that this people shall be destroyed by the sword; but O Lord, rather let there be a famine in the land, to stir them up in remembrance of the Lord their God" (Helaman 11:4). Drought fell on everyone until the people repented and Nephi asked for rain. The famine made the people feel the cost of their conduct. Sunlight reflection would ease that cost while emissions continue, a "moral hazard" critics fear will sap the will to cut them, though the evidence is mixed. Nephi also acted under God's commission, and a modern state could act under no one's. Officials and experts who war-gamed the technology in London in September 2026 never reached an agreement.

Restitution for the Fire

When a fire spread into a neighbor's grain, "he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution" (Exodus 22:6). The Hebrew shalam, "make restitution," means to make whole and is kin to shalom, "peace." The UN climate panel judges carbon removal "unavoidable" for balancing emissions that cannot be eliminated, but the industry is tiny. Climeworks' Mammoth plant, built for up to 36,000 tons a year, removed 675 tons in the first half of 2026; fossil fuels emitted some 38 billion tons in 2025. Credits for removals promised later can also excuse emissions now.

The revelations promise that the earth "must needs be sanctified from all unrighteousness, that it may be prepared for the celestial glory," and that "the poor and the meek of the earth shall inherit it" (D&C 88:17-19). The tenth Article of Faith expects that "the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory" (Articles of Faith 1:10), and Enoch was told that his city would return to meet a latter-day Zion, after which the earth would rest a thousand years. Mormon transhumanists hope technology will help bring about that renewal, and geoengineering is among the first tools that work at that scale. In Enoch's vision, the power that moved mountains comes back with a people of one heart, and the earth it helps renew passes to the poor and the meek, the people least likely to be consulted by the first nation to dim the sun.