This summer is on track to be the hottest summer recorded, with states like Arizona experiencing over 4 weeks of temperatures above 110 degrees and wildfires raging in nations like Greece and even Canada. Man-made global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels is the main culprit, and with the political will lacking here in the United States, the realist in me says that eventually we will have no other alternative than to attempt risky solar geo-engineering to cool the planet. On the surface, world leaders are focusing on preventing the planet from rising to 1.5 degrees Celcius in the next few decades, but quietly they are also examining solar geo-engineering as a last ditch backup plan.