Geoengineering: Our Last Hope, or a False Promise?

[XemaSab]

THE concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere recently surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time in three million years. If you are not frightened by this fact, then you are ignoring or denying science.

Relentlessly rising greenhouse-gas emissions, and the fear that the earth might enter a climate emergency from which there would be no return, have prompted many climate scientists to conclude that we urgently need a Plan B: geoengineering.

Geoengineering — the deliberate, large-scale intervention in the climate system to counter global warming or offset some of its effects — may enable humanity to mobilize its technological power to seize control of the planet’s climate system, and regulate it in perpetuity.

But is it wise to try to play God with the climate? For all its allure, a geoengineered Plan B may lead us into an impossible morass.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/opinion/geoengineering-our-last-hope-or-a-false-promise.html?_r=0

[Exultant Democracy]

1. Well if we wanted to do it the right way that ship has already sailed.

In some way this process of global warming we have caused is our first great experiment in geoengineering. We know for a fact that humanity is capable of causing radical changes in an unbelievably short geological timescale.

To tell the truth it is hard to see how we can even say this is a plan B with a straight face. It was always plan A.

[cprise]

2. Adding sulfur dioxide to the air sounds bad

Too much of it would create acid rain and a deforestation effect.

OTOH, I can't think of a downside for seeding clouds using sea water.

Neither one addresses ocean acidification, however.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. There are several types of geoengineering other than adding SO2 to the upper atmosphere

http://www.geoengineering.ox.ac.uk/what-is-geoengineering/what-is-geoengineering/?

[cprise]

8. I didn't know Biochar was considered geoengineering

But I guess that makes sense. Even people like Vandanna Shiva have indicated support for biochar.

Painting roofs and other structures white also seems like a pretty innocuous measure.

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. Sure it is!

If you’re making a large effort, with the intent of changing the environment, you’re geoengineering.

So, for example, replanting forests, or planting forests where none existed before is geoengineering.

[wtmusic]

3. If the plan is to destroy the biosphere as quickly as possible

geoengineering sounds very promising.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Got a better idea?

Love to hear it!

http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2012/12/forget-about-that-2-degree-future/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Forget About That 2-Degree Future[/font]

Bruce Lieberman — December 5, 2012

[font size=3]The opportunity to limit the rise in average global temperatures this century to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels — corresponding to a CO[font size=1]₂[/font] atmospheric concentration of 450 ppm — has pretty much slipped away, says climate scientist Robert Watson.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Dec. 5, 2012 — Renowned British climate scientist Sir Robert Watson pulled few punches today during a talk about the warmer world humans will face in coming decades.

Watson, who was IPCC chair from 1997 to 2002, all but dismissed the possibility of keeping the rise in average global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — a temperature rise that corresponds to an atmospheric concentration of CO[font size=1]₂[/font] of 450 parts per million. It now stands at about 390 ppm.

“Fundamentally, we are not on a path toward a 2 degree world,” Watson told a packed hall at Moscone Center for a talk entitled: “A World Where the Atmospheric Concentration of Carbon Dioxide Exceeds 450 ppm.”

…[/font][/font]

[wtmusic]

6. Yes

Forget about all those silly renewable toys that will guarantee us a 4-degree future.

It's a start, anyway.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. Great!

So, your better idea is to not do something.

[longship]

7. I sincerely hope it never comes to that.

R&K

[Socialistlemur]

9. I'm not frightened by this fact

I got the sense there's a lot of hype about this subject. The CO2 mol fraction at Mauna Loa doesn't exactly have an impact. What should worry us is whether its going to get a lot warmer. I'm still waiting to see refined models I think make useful projections. Until then I think surface average temperatures will not increase more than 2 degrees C above today's values. The ARCTIC ice will melt but that should increase fish stocks.

[phantom power]

12. The fear of deliberate intervention amuses me...

considering that we've been intervening de facto for at least 200 years, and we are showing no signs of even slowing down. Mysteriously, very few people are afraid of that.