It might seem improbable that ancient stories could teach us about modern problems like global warming. But contemporary schemes to arrest global warming by geoengineering the earth’s atmosphere often contain echoes of classical myth. First there’s Phaëton, who drives the sun’s chariot across the sky for one day, loses control of the horses, scorches vast tracts of land, and is killed by Zeus’s thunderbolt before he could burn down the world. Next there’s Icarus, who flies too near the sun on wings of wax and plummets earthward after they melt. The classical consensus seems clear: hubristic humans who intrude on the sun’s domain die hot, horrible deaths.

Trepidation about tampering with the cosmos can’t be dismissed as just a vestige of a simpler time. Even today, proponents of plans for solar management acknowledge the grave risks of such projects. Scattering particles in the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight back into space, for instance, might cause uneven cooling, with some areas of the planet growing colder as others become even warmer. Atmospheric scientists have run simulations that suggest altering the sun’s rays could cause the rapid acidification of the oceans. And there could be entirely unexpected effects that turn out to be more dire than the outcomes we can anticipate.

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