What would it take to put global warming in reverse?

Can we make the world cool back down?

(Geoffrey Whiteway/FreeRangeStock.com)

On Monday evening, my husband headed out for an exercise walk just as the sun was going down. When he came back home some 45 minutes later, I asked how his walk went.

It was fine, he said, except for the damn heat and humidity.

I started to tell him that it will get better once the majority of the planet gets on board with greener living, but then I wondered, is that true? If everyone on earth quit burning fossil fuels, began planting more trees than were cut down every year, and halted every other environmentally unfriendly practice, would Earth's temperature begin to cool back down, or would they just stop rising?

A web search gave me some insight, but not a lot. According to an undated post on the MIT School of Engineering website, through which visitors are invited to "Ask an Engineer" states that studies have focused more on mitigating the problem than on reversing it. (Reference 1)

Other websites mention possible solutions, but they all seem to rely on people taking an active role in reversing it, including one remedy that calls for burning trees then capturing and storing the carbon from them. (Reference 2) I have trouble wrapping my brain around how burning trees could help, but then, I am not a scientist.

In short, the answer for me is that I still don't know if just by everyone doing their part every day that global warming can be reversed. All I can do is give greener living my all and hope for the best. If we can stop the CO2 in the air from rising, that would great. But halting that rise is job No. 1.


References

1. Ask an Engineer: Can Global Warming Be Reversed? by Sarah Jensen, MIT School of Engineering website, engineering.mit.edu.
2. Dangerous global warming could be reversed, say scientists, by Natalie Starkey, The Guardian, July 11, 2013.