MOST solutions to the problem of global warming are tediously,
almost oppressively, quotidian. Switch the lights off. Stop
using fossil fuels to make electricity. Run an efficient car.
Don't fly. A few grandiose projects have also been suggested,
such as giant parasols in space or adding iron to the ocean to
encourage planktonic algae to grow and soak up carbon dioxide.
On the whole, though, those big ideas are either mad or could
have dangerously unpredictable consequences.  That does not mean
that lateral thinking about the problem has no place. And the
idea proposed by Alfred Wong of the University of California,
Los Angeles, at last week's meeting of the American Geophysical
Union, in Acapulco, is about as lateral as they come. Dr Wong
reckons the problem is not so much that CO2 is being thrown
away, but that it is not being thrown far enough. According to
his calculations, a little helping hand would turn the Earth's
magnetic field into a conveyor belt that would vent the gas into
outer space, whence it