They say there’s a fine line between genius and insanity. And when desperate times require desperate measures, that line can become much blurrier. Thankfully, in the case of climate change, we still have a few more practical alternatives – renewable energy, hybrid vehicles, energy efficiency, and maybe even carbon sequestration - before having to resort to some of the technologies discussed in a recent Associated Press article.

At this point, none of these “crazy” ideas have been proven to work. And some very basic questions remain. Would dumping tons of iron dust into the ocean create plankton that eats carbon dioxide without wreaking bio-disaster? Would creating a giant artificial sulfur volcano have the same planetwide cooling effect as the natural volcano eruption in the Philippines 16 years ago? Would launching millions of reflectors into space create a solar “umbrella” that could actually cool the Earth?  Could manmade air filters – “fake trees” – really absorb enough greenhouse gas to matter?

Some of the more ardent climate change skeptics argue that these strategies should be explored in more depth before we spend trillions and risk economic calamity to cap greenhouse gas emissions. Most mainstream scientists, though, consider these strategies not just off-the-wall, but clearly unfeasible. They unintended side effects trump any potential benefit. The ends don’t justify the means.

But it’s not all crazy talk. Another proposed strategy that is much further along and shows some real promise is carbon sequestration. The idea here is to bury greenhouse gas emissions deep in the Earth or in the ocean as soon as they’re produced so that they aren’t able to get to the atmosphere and trap heat. Among many initiatives to make carbon sequestration commercially viable, the National Energy Technology Laboratory is working on program to have efficient carbon sequestration systems available by 2012. This could have a significant impact on the oft-cited goal of reducing greenhouse gas emission 60 to 80 percent by 2050. If carbon sequestration works, that goal doesn’t sound crazy at all.