Giant balloon to be launched to test climate fix hope By Leila Battison | BBC Science reporter, Bradford A huge helium-filled balloon attached to a 1km length of hosepipe is to be launched next month to help investigate the feasibility of climate engineering. One method involves pumping particles into the stratosphere, to mimic the short-term [...]
UPDATE: Friends, the experimental hose designed by British scientists (to put sulphates in the stratosphere) that we informed you about last week continues to provoke controversy. Read updates from project-favorable media from Time Magazine, the New Scientist – to a letter from the Royal Society . Also Southern perspectives on geoengineering in a conference late this month.
It may sound like the crazed plan of a James Bond villain but scientists are working on a way to artificially cool the planet by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth. In a largely theoretical field known as geo-engineering, a team of British academics is about to announce a world-first with plans to field test [...]
The writer and activist Bill McKibben has a saying: “You can’t negotiate with the planet.” What he means is that climate change will continue to unfold based on the amount of carbon we spew into the atmosphere—along with other physical factors—whether we chose to believe in it or not. That’s worth remembering as we enter [...]
A time may come when mankind will need to consider geoengineering the climate to counteract climatic effects of greenhouse gases. If that time comes, we need to have a good understanding of whether such efforts will work and, just as importantly, whether they will have any negative side effects. Those who oppose such exploratory research on the grounds that we do not know what its effects may be (Want to mimic a volcano to combat global warming? Launch a Wembley-size balloon, 1 September) are missing a fundamental point of research, which is to allow us to potentially rule out any technology that would have negative effects that outweigh the positive.
Field trials for experiments to engineer the climate have begun. Next month a team of UK researchers will hoist one end of a 1-kilometre-long hose aloft using a balloon, then attempt to pump water up it and spray it into the atmosphere (see diagram). The water will not affect the climate. Rather, the experiment is [...]
In response to reports that British scientists are about to test the hardware needed to put sulphur particles in the stratosphere as a climate technofix, international technology watchdog ETC Group is calling on the UK government to halt the controversial test and respect UN processes underway to discuss these issues.
It sounds barmy, audacious or sci-fi: a tethered balloon the size of Wembley stadium suspended 20km above Earth, linked to the ground by a giant garden hose pumping hundreds of tonnes of minute chemical particles a day into the thin stratospheric air to reflect sunlight and cool the planet.
There are two new reports out on geoengineering that we would like to bring to your attention. The first report, “Climate engineering: Technical status, future directions, and potential responses” is a detailed technical examination of different geoengineering technology. Also in the realm of public opinion about geoengineering, a new report was also recently released in the UK: Public Engagement on Geoengineering Research: Preliminary Report on the SPICE deliberative workshops. This report concerns two of the major research projects that were funded in the UK following the release of the Royal Society report in 2009: the Integrated Assessment of Geoengineering Proposals (IAGP) and the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE).
Earth Overhaul - http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/earth-overhaul-5686/Overview This new film on geoengineering looks very “gee whiz ain’t it great” but you may want to check it out Thursday Aug 25 10PM. (subsequent showings also listed at their website)
The hype never stops! The proposal to cover the world with plastic trees that would be 1000 times more efficient than natural trees in sucking up CO2 just received another boost from the energy collective which shows a video report on Klaus Lackner’s lab at Columbia University in New York. If these are the [...]
John Vidal, the UK Guardian’s environment editor published this excellent piece in the Observer earlier this month: Geo-engineering: green versus greed in the race to cool the planet original article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/10/geo-engineering-weather-manipulation The alert on the Climate Ark website in January 2009 was marked urgent: “Take action: A rogue science ship is poised to carry out risky [...]
Here is a a good piece on the Ethics of Geoengineering by Clive Hamilton, the Charles Sturt Professor of Public Ethics at the Australian Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics in Canberra. As a refreshing look on the subject, Hamilton tackes the “consequentialist approach” which fails the tackle the very ways of thinking that [...]
[ download press release PDF here ] [ español ] LIMA, Peru – As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wound up its expert meeting on geoengineering in Lima, Peru, which included all three IPCC Working Groups, it committed to remain “policy relevant but not policy prescriptive.” Despite getting off on the wrong foot (no [...]
Dear friends, We just wanted to send you an update on the letter we signed last week on the IPCC meeting on geoengineering that got underway this morning in Peru. First of all, there has been quite a lot of media coverage, and I include links to a sampling of it. Please feel free to circulate in your networks.
Closed sessions, angry geo-engineers, US weather extremes and a plethora of NGOs. Who will lift the veil on these murky talks which we, the public, are barred even from observing? Decisions are – or are not – being made that will affect every human being on Earth, yet most of the discussions here are being held in closed session to which civil society, in the form of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the press, have no access.
[ original article at Jakarta Globe ] Bonn, Germany. On the heels of another halting round of talks on climate change, UN scientists this week will review quick-fix options for beating back the threat of global warming that rely on technology rather than political wrangling. Experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, meeting for [...]
Today, 125 international and national organizations, representing at least 40 countries from all continents, sent an open letter to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), demanding a clear statement of its commitment to precaution and to the existing international moratorium on geoengineering. The IPCC will hold an expert meeting on geoengineering 20-22 June in Lima, Peru. (The letter is available and open for signatures here.)
The likelihood that such technology could bring a safe, lasting, democratic and peaceful solution is miniscule
On the eve of climate talks that began last week, the UN’s climate chief, Christiana Figueres, told the Guardian: “We are putting ourselves in a scenario where we will have to develop more powerful technologies to capture emissions out of the atmosphere.”
ADDING LIME to acidifying oceans, sucking carbon dioxide (C02) and methane out of the air, genetically modifying crops so they are lighter in colour, and painting roofs and even roads white to reflect the sun’s heat . . . welcome of the world of geo-engineering.
Such “solutions” to the problem of global warming are to be discussed next week by experts at a meeting in Lima, Peru, convened by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is being widely criticised for giving credibility to this controversial area.
[ original article at DailyIndia.com ] London, June 16: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is considering sending reflective aerosols into space under a series of radical “geo-engineering” measures being considered by the UN climate science body to tackle climate change, it has emerged. The IPCC papers leaked ahead of a key meeting in Peru [...]
In a move that suggests the UN and rich countries are despairing of reaching agreement by consensus at global climate talks, the US, British and other western scientists will outline a series of ideas to manipulate the world’s climate to reduce carbon emissions. But they accept that even though the ideas could theoretically work, they might equally have unintended and even irreversible consequences.
The IPCC must take great care not to squander its credibility on geoengineering, a topic that is gathering steam when there is no real progress on mitigation and adaptation. The IPCC’s announcement of the expert meeting already suggests that geoengineering has a place in the portfolio of legitimate responses to climate change…
Some scientists are concerned about the ethical and legal dimensions of emerging technologies such as geo-engineering and unmanned aerial vehicles. For pressure group Scientists for Global Responsibility, a loose alliance of scientists and engineers concerned with placing ethics at the centre of the development of technology…
There are three important new developments on geoengineering (large-scale intentional manipulation of the Earth systems in an attempt to affect the climate) that we we like to bring to your attention. What has long been lurking in the shadows of climate negotiations as a wealthy country Plan B has all of a sudden come front and center. We urge you to pay attention to these developments and intervene where you can.
For anyone who will be in Bonn on June 10, please consider attending this workshop, organized by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is a direct follow-up from the moratorium adopted last year at COP 10. You must confirm attendance no later than June 6.
À tous ceux qui seront présents à Bonn le 10 juin, nous vous suggérons de participer à cet atelier sur Géoingénierie et Biodiversité, organisé par le Secrétariat de la Convention sur la diversité biologique. Cet atelier est en lien direct avec le moratoire adopté en octobre dernier à la 10ème Conférence des Parties à Nagoya, au Japon. Vous devez cependant confirmer votre présence au plus tard le 6 juin.
The Convention on Biological Diversity has established a liaison group on geoengineering to look in more detail at some critical aspects of last October’s decision on geongineering including how the term is defined. It is announced here and they are accepting CVs until June 1. Please consider applying to be part of this process. We [...]
JASON BLACKSTOCK, a young scholar with an almost luminous sense of self-confidence, has been gaming out the future in recent months. He’s been training his mental telescope on the year 2031, and the nagging question of whether our world will be consumed by a new, climate-related geopolitics. A senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario, he is developing a bracing scenario with specific relevance to Canadians: after decades of global warming, the summer sea ice in the Arctic has vanished entirely, opening up new trade routes and vast oil and gas reserves in the Far North. China and the Pacific Rim nations, meanwhile, are enduring ever-worsening repercussions of climate change: volatile storms, food riots, and rising sea levels that displace millions of people. “Suddenly,” he says, drawing out the tale like the pitch for a thriller, “some countries say, ‘Screw it. We have to cool this down.’”
Apparently the carbon sucking machines and artificial trees (the favourite technologies of entrepreneurs David Keith and Klaus Lackner) are not that promising! ScienceDaily (May 9, 2011) — Technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are unlikely to offer an economically feasible way to slow human-driven climate change for several decades, according to a new report. [...]
View + Comment at this link: http://www.cbd.int/climate/geoengineering/review/ The Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a moratorium on geoengineering activities in 2010. The Secretariat was instructed to prepare two papers as part of that decision: one on the impacts of geoengineering on biodiversity and the other on regulatory frameworks. Those papers are now available for peer review. [...]
Pat Mooney, author and award-winning director of ETC Group will provide an overview of the politics behind some of the most critical issues facing the planet today: unsustainable agriculture, corporate concentration in the life industries and geoengineering.
H.O.M.E. is a project of the ETC Group - monitoring power, tracking technology, strengthening diversity
site by Design TechTonics- tactical autonobot endeavors to shake things up | H.O.M.E. graphic by Stig
