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Written by Joanna Hoang   
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Wednesday, 03 November 2010

Geoengineering

Given our Nation and world’s reluctance to changing habits, scientists are turning more and more towards the idea of Geoengineering—otherwise known as Climate Engineering. The notion of geoengineering is not a new one… When the issue of climate change and global warming first arose, the solution to the problem was not thought to be reducing greenhouse gases. Rather, scientists sought to stop the problem using technology starting during Lyndon Johnson’s presidency in the mid-1960s.1 Geoengineering does not have one clear definition, and the possibilities are endless, but there are three main approaches to geoengineering:
  1. Reduce the amount of climate change produced by an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations;

  2. Remove greenhouse gases that have already been released to the atmosphere; and lastly, the least popular…

  3. Take heat that exists near the surface of the Earth and stuff it down deep into the ocean. For a more comprehensive discussion of Global Warming and its effects on the planet, please read: "Global Warming Effects".2
President George W. Bush withdrew the United States’ support for the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, arguing that an agreement to limit carbon dioxide emissions was not itself effective if no one is able to keep to the agreement. More funding was then put to research other solutions such as geoengineering.3 President Bush’s Climate Change Technology Program then organized a meeting called "Response Options to Rapid or Severe Climate Change," where more than a dozen prominent scientists came to discuss climate engineering ideas.4 Some of the ideas that stood out included:
  1. Storing Response Options to Rapid or Severe Climate Change, underground;
  2. Filtering CO2 from the air;
  3. Fertilizing the Ocean;
  4. Turning CO2 to stone;
  5. Enhancing clouds to reflect sunlight;
  6. Deflecting sunlight with a giant mirror in space;
  7. And many more including: re-icing the arctic; taming storms with cold water; growing super trees in factories; building wetlands from scratch; and insulting ice glaciers.5
Many of these ideas may sound outrageous, but many of them are already being carried out as projects sponsored by governments and private individuals around the world. Increasingly, more and more people around the world are investing in and researching methods of geoengineering. One of them is the world famous Bill Gates.6 According to the Science Insider, Bill Gates has been funding a number of geoengineering research projects since the year 2007 to the tune of 4.5 million dollars. The money was spread over a period of three years towards the study of methods to change our stratosphere to reflect the sun rays and to filter CO2, amongst other things.


Sun Screen
Sun Screen: “Stationed between the Earth and sun at a point where the gravitational forces nearly cancel each other out, a 600,000-square-mile space ‘mirror’ scatters sunlight with a mesh woven of fine metal wires.”7

Sun Screen: “Stationed between the Earth and sun at a point where the gravitational forces nearly cancel each other out, a 600,000-square-mile space ‘mirror’ scatters sunlight with a mesh woven of fine metal wires.” Many scientists who have spent the majority of their careers creating nuclear weapons are the ones coming up with some of the more radical ideas for engineering the Earth’s climate.

Controversial as the idea of altering the climate through man-made technology is, the truth is that this practice has already been employed many times. In an effort to reduce the effects of greenhouse gases, many environmental groups have pushed for more trees to be planted. This is a form of geoengineering—making changes to the environment to reduce the harmful effects of climate change. However just as the GMO (genetically modified organism) hysteria, the fear and controversy of “playing God,” changing the climate and altering the weather carries a similarly negative stigma. However, this is not the only controversial dispute surrounding these matters…

Geoengineering is not supported by any of the major environmental activist circles. Many say it detracts from the source of the problems themselves and does not push humans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and stop polluting the planet. They argue it allows everyone to continue their detrimental actions while risking unforeseen consequences of altering the climate that cannot be predicted through the models that we currently have.8 These predicted consequences include: typhoons, floods, wiping out entire eco-systems, and other extreme weather changes and natural disasters, which are all projected to be a result of climate change.

As far as solutions to climate change go, geoengineering may not be the best one out there. It won’t solve all of our problems, but it CAN help us get there when combined with reducing the human impact on the planet. Only research and time will tell, but given the slow human change we are witnessing, we better hope that geoengineering turns out to be successful!

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1 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=geoengineering-and-climate-change
2 Id.
3 http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2005-06/how-earth-scale-engineering-can-save-planet
4 Id.
5 http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2007-07/5-duct-tape-methods-save-earth
6 http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/01/bill-gates-fund.html
7 http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2005-06/how-earth-scale-engineering-can-save-planet
8 http://www.princeton.edu/~rcai/geoengineering/04_cai_irwin_nontechnical_debate.html




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