For years it was considered downright wacky in official Washington to discuss geoengineering: altering the climate by reflecting sunlight back into the sky, sucking carbon dioxide from the air – or a host of other gee-whiz schemes. But in the past year the wacky has won a following, spurred in part by the recent collapse of climate legislation as well as by growing interest among private entrepreneurs and foreign officials.

House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Bart Gordon(D-Tenn.), whose panel will jointly release a report on climate engineering with the British House of Commons this month, said the subject is “just now starting to get some attention” even though people recognize the danger in trying to change a complex weather system.

“The more you know about it, the more you’re concerned about if we can ever implement it,” Gordon said in an interview. “However, there may be a point where we’re up against the tipping point, and the consequences of climate change are even worse.”

Over the next few months, whispering about changing the weather will evolve into written recommendations. Several key groups – including the Government Accountability Office and a bipartisan task force of experts – will issue their thoughts on how best to start a modest federal research program on geoengineering.

“We’re getting a sense that agencies are interested in this topic and would be open, on a certain level, to letting this program go forward,” said Jane Long, who co-chairs the National Commission on Energy Policy’s task force.

At this point, though, even the experts most seriously looking at climate engineering describe it as a last resort for when climate impacts become a serious threat and the world has yet to wean itself off fossil fuels.

“Geoengineering only makes sense – if it makes sense, and that’s an important conditional – as a way to bridge this crisis period,” said Steven Hamburg, the Environmental Defense Fund’s chief scientist.

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