Climate scientists convene global geo-engineering summit (in California in March)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/12/geo-engineering-summit

Climate scientists convene global geo-engineering summit

Meeting in California in March will discuss possible field trials of schemes that would tackle climate change by reflecting sunlight or fertilising the ocean with iron

David Adam, environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 January 2010 16.58 GMT

…

Experts from around the world have been invited to attend the meeting in March in California, which will examine possible field trials of so-called geo-engineering schemes, such as pumping chemicals into the air and oceans to combat climate change.

The move follows the failure of the recent Copenhagen climate talks to set meaningful carbon reduction targets, and comes amid mounting concern that such controversial techniques may be the only way to curb rising temperatures.

Mike MacCracken, a global warming expert at the http://www.climate.org/">Climate Institute in Washington DC, who is organising the conference's scientific programme, said: "Most of the talk about these geo-engineering techniques say they should be saved until we get to an emergency situation. Well the people of the Arctic might say they are in an emergency situation now."

He added: "It is hard to see how mitigation can save the Arctic and losing the Arctic is a tremendous risk, not just for the region but for the rest of the world. So are there other ways to save it?"

…

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. Unrecommended

What does it say about DU when members (in effect) tell others “Don’t read this, because I don’t like this idea?”

[pscot]

4. Probably just means

they don't like the idea. On the other hand, the more one dislikes the idea, the more one ought to be paying attention.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Yes, my assumption is that they are opposed to Geo-Engineering (and I don’t blame them)

Still, I was taught that one needs to consider other points of view…

[Nihil]

2. Neither recommended nor unrecommended ...

Just a rather large "Oh F*CK ..." as the VCs, economists & techno-geeks
start dribbling over even whizzier ways to screw the planet ...

:argh:

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. On the possible use of geoengineering to moderate specific climate change impacts

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045107

On the possible use of geoengineering to moderate specific climate change impacts

Michael C MacCracken 2009 Environ. Res. Lett. 4 045107 (14pp) doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045107">10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045107

http://www.iop.org/EJ/search_author?query2=Michael%20C%20MacCracken&searchfield2=authors&journaltype=all&datetype=all&sort=date_cover&submit=1">Michael C MacCracken
Climate Institute, Washington, DC 20006, USA

Part of http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/1748-9326/4/4/045101">Focus on Climate Engineering: Intentional Intervention in the Climate System

Abstract. With significant reductions in emissions likely to require decades and the impacts of projected climate change likely to become more and more severe, proposals for taking deliberate action to counterbalance global warming have been proposed as an important complement to reducing emissions. While a number of geoengineering approaches have been proposed, each introduces uncertainties, complications and unintended consequences that have only begun to be explored. For limiting and reversing global climate change over periods of years to decades, solar radiation management, particularly injection of sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere, has emerged as the leading approach, with mesospheric reflectors and satellite deflectors also receiving attention. For a number of reasons, tropospheric approaches to solar radiation management present greater challenges if the objective is to reduce the increase in global average temperature. However, such approaches have a number of advantages if the objective is to alleviate specific consequences of climate change expected to cause significant impacts for the environment and society. Among the most damaging aspects of the climate that might be countered are: the warming of low-latitude oceans that observations suggest contribute to more intense tropical cyclones and coral bleaching; the amplified warming of high latitudes and the associated melting of ice that has been accelerating sea level rise and altering mid-latitude weather; and the projected reduction in the loading and cooling influence of sulfate aerosols, which has the potential to augment warming sufficient to trigger methane and carbon feedbacks. For each of these impacts, suitable scientific, technological, socioeconomic, and governance research has the potential to lead to tropospheric geoengineering approaches that, with a well-funded research program, could begin playing a moderating role for some aspects of climate change within a decade.

Received 8 May 2009, accepted for publication 12 October 2009
Published 30 October 2009