ETC Group calls for Ban on Geoengineering at Rio+20
View ETC Group's submission for the Zero Draft of RIO+20. Section 2 specifically details perspectives on geoengineering and the rationalization behind a ban.
New Book from ETC Group on false climate solutions: Earth Grab! – geoengineering, biomass and climate-ready crops
'Earth Grab - Geopiracy, the New Biomassters and Capturing Climate Genes' - essential, cutting-edge climate science in everyday language - is published this week (27 October 2011). The authors reveal information that the large corporations who profit from climate change do not want the public to know.
John Vidal speaks truth to power one more time
Just days after the British got cold feet, the Washington-based thinktank the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) published a major report calling for the United States and other likeminded countries to move towards large-scale climate change experimentation. Trying to rebrand geoengineering as "climate remediation", the BPC report is full of precautionary rhetoric, but its bottom line is that there should be presidential leadership for the nascent technologies, a "coalition of willing" countries to experiment together, large-scale testing and big government funding.
“Hold Your Hoses!” – Kink in UK’s ‘Trojan Hose’ geoengineering experiment, as European Parliament signals its opposition to planet-tinkering
Opponents of proposals to “geoengineer” the planet have two reasons to celebrate this week. Firstly, ETC Group has learned that UK scientists, in the midst of controversy, are on the cusp of postponing an imminent test of an experimental hose (dubbed the “Trojan Hose” by opponents) designed to deliver sulphur dioxide to the stratosphere as a way to engineer a cooler planet. The test had been scheduled for October; on Monday, 60 groups from around the globe sent an open letter to the UK government and the research councils involved expressing their opposition to the experiment. No public announcement of the decision has been made and details must be clarified, but an undeniable lack of prior stakeholder engagement is the likely reason for the delay.
Scientists oppose British experiment
Envisioning a worst-case scenario in which climate change spirals out of control, researchers in the United Kingdom are planning to test a hose-and-balloon device that spews particles into the atmosphere in an attempt to bring global temperatures back down. The method is a geoengineering technique that would mimic the cooling effect of giant volcanic eruptions. When thrown high into the atmosphere by volcanoes, small particles reflect sunlight into space, decreasing the amount of heat energy that arrives on Earth. If humans could place similar particles up high, we could theoretically offset the effects of greenhouse gas warming, researchers reason.
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New Report: Who Will Control the Green Economy?
From the UN Rio+20 preparatory meetings in New York, ETC Group today launches Who Will Control the Green Economy? The 60-page report connects the dots between the climate and oil crises, new technologies and corporate power. The report warns that the world’s largest companies are riding the coattails of the “Green Economy” while gearing up [...]
The story behind the SRMGI report
Suspicious of the UN, resistant to regulation and leading inquiries – how has this group become the 'go-to scientists'? The contradictory and ambivalent recommendations of the report of the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative (SRMGI), published last week, reflect the emerging faultlines in the global debate overgeoengineering.