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Climate Researcher Colleen Golja always thought science and reason would have a seat at the table in deciding the planet’s fate. That was until one morning last September in London, when she took part in the first in a series of war games.

A couple dozen foreign-relations experts, scientists, military personnel, and former government officials from across the world sat down together and roleplayed as national governments, climate NGOs and nonprofits, indigenous groups, and tech companies.

The goal: to prevent an uncontrolled global race to develop a technology aimed at cooling the planet but that comes with vast, unknown risks that could reshape life on Earth.

Golja—as one of very few experts in the technology involved—was assigned to provide technical advice to help participants make scientifically literate decisions. By the end of the last day, she was in tears.

If country representatives asked Golja anything, it was usually a leading question looking for data that would serve their ends or frame a rival’s proposal as reckless. Any scientific input was ignored.

Solar geoengineering technologies promise to reverse global warming by reflecting away a portion of the sunlight reaching Earth. But the fallout is less certain—and less equal across the regions and actors involved.

Most experts agree it would take a superpower’s reach to ensure the safe passage of planes needed to deliver payloads of dust to the stratosphere in a geoengineering exercise. But neither the US nor China would lightly cede control over the global thermostat.