Geoengineering Video

Geoengineering is one of the options than is left to us to combat global warming. Seen as many as “Plan B”, not that anyone seems to have come up with “Plan A” yet, Geoengineering is an extremely experimental way of dealing with climate change and comes with huge risks. It is after all our tampering with the planet by emitting greenhouse gases that caused the problem in the first place. Here is a tongue and cheek summary of the basics:

The American Meteorological Society recently had this to say on the matter, in a recent Policy Statement:

“Human activities have very likely caused most of the well-documented change in global climate over the last half century. Unchecked future greenhouse gas emissions, particularly of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, will almost certainly lead to additional climate impacts such as further global warming, continued sea level rise, greater rainfall intensity, more serious and pervasive droughts, enhanced heat stress episodes, ocean acidification, and the disruption of many biological systems. The resulting inundation of coastal areas, severe weather impacts and loss of ecosystem services will likely cause major negative impacts for most nations.

Three strategies could potentially help reduce the risks of climate change: 1) reduce emissions (mitigation), 2) moderate impacts by increasing our capacity to cope with them (adaptation), and 3) deliberately manipulate large-scale physical, chemical or biological aspects of the climate system to counteract the climate effects of increasing greenhouse gas emissions (geoengineering the climate system). This policy statement addresses geoengineering.

Geoengineering proposals fall into at least three broad categories: 1) managing atmospheric greenhouse gases (e.g., ocean fertilization and atmospheric carbon capture and sequestration), 2) cooling the Earth by reflecting sunlight (e.g., putting reflective particles into the atmosphere, putting mirrors in space to reflect the sun’s energy, increasing surface reflectivity and altering the amount or characteristics of clouds), and 3) moderating specific impacts of global warming (e.g., efforts to limit sea level rise by increasing land storage of water, protecting ice sheets or artificially enhancing mountain glaciers).”

My personal opinion is one of frustration. We are forcing our own hand on this matter, by continuously NOT meeting the suggestions and demands of scientists, and I feel that as long as there is a back door for them to possibly escape out of if it all goes tits up, then they will carry on regardless. But Fighting Fire with Fire is a dangerous game.

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