'Tangled ball of issues': Why geoengineering our climate raises serious ethical, scientific challenges
Some believe solar radiation management could stop the world
from catastrophic warming
Nicole Mortillaro · CBC News
The skies over the northeast Pacific Ocean are seen streaked with clouds that form around the particles in a ship's exhaust. One method of geoengineering borrows from this phenomenon. Some researchers argue it could be used to stop the planet from catastrophic levels of warming. (NASA/MODIS)
As global carbon emissions continue to rise despite warnings from the scientific community, there's been increased interest in a controversial method to potentially mitigate the rise in Earth's temperature: Geoengineering.
The conversation around geoengineering — or the deliberate manipulation of our environment — is gaining traction as climate projections remain dire.
Dire, but absurdly so.
Scientists, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have repeatedly cautioned that emissions need to be rapidly cut in order to keep the world from warming 1.5 C or 2 C above pre-industrial times — the threshold that would result in widespread damage and suffering.
But with emissions still on the rise, some researchers are now calling for a closer look at more experimental measures, ones that could be pursued alongside emissions cuts.
One of the more popular forms of geoengineering is known as solar radiation management, or SRM.
But SRM is fraught with questions — both ethical and scientific.
There is more on this nonse.... ah, story, at CBC News, although I'm not sure it qualifies as news.
Geoengineering, mostly cloud seeding, does address some of the real causes of global warming, not CO2 or other GHGs, (the far-and-away number one GHG is water vapour), but a decrease of clouds in the atmosphere because of solar activity. Solar activity, sunspots, create solar winds which intercept interstellar winds that contribute to create clouds. When sunspot activity is low, there is more cloudiness and cooler temperatures. That's why the coolest known periods in history are associated with solar minimums.
This geoengineering idea actually seems to acknowledge this theory and proposes a possible solution. But it won't work! It might even appear to work but in the end it will probably be worse than anything the hyperbolic IPCC has imagined so far.
They are thinking of adding sulfur, or calcium carbonate to the atmosphere to increase cloud amounts.
They are thinking of adding sulfur, or calcium carbonate to the atmosphere to increase cloud amounts.
What will that do when it mixes with the air that we breath? Will we actually be able to breath it?
What will it do when it rains on the earth and on our lakes and oceans? Will it affect the acidity or alkaline levels? Will it kill a bunch of fish leaving rivers and lakes dead?
Will the surfer collect in our forests and turn our trees into giant match-heads?
One of the great fears about global warming is the flooding of coast-lands. Most coastal flooding occurs near the mouths of rivers when river levels are high, tides are high and storm-surges occur.
Seeding clouds will result in sometimes significantly more rainfalls. These rainfall must eventually find their way to the ocean causing higher river and lake levels on their way. When they happen to reach the mouths of the great rivers, you better pray that it doesn't coincide with a storm or there will be flooding like we've never seen.
I question whether seeding clouds in one area will reduce the number of clouds in another area downstream. If you are removing moisture from the air, then fewer clouds can form downstream, increasing the solar radiation, the temperatures, and decreasing the rain/snowfalls.
If the IPCC really wants to do something constructive, they should begin studying the real causes of global warming - sunspot activity, solar winds, the tilting of the earth on its axis (notice the rapidly moving magnetic north pole), and the course of the earth around the sun. Is anyone even measuring that?
Svensmark - Basically, his theory is that cosmic rays cause ions in the atmosphere which eventually contribute to cloud formation. Sunspot activity acts as an umbrella reducing the cosmic rays that reach the earth, thereby reducing cloud cover, resulting in warming temperatures. Periods of minimum sunspot activity correlate well with reduced cosmic rays and temperatures.
The IPCC was formed by the WMO and UNEP in 1988 with the mandate to study the man's affects on climate change. They were not given the authority to study non-anthropogenic global climate change, so they don't. Their computer models are restricted to perceived man-made effects. Hence, they ignore the main causes of global warming and amplify the anthropogenic effects. This is not science; this was a political decision.
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