| inbluevt | Date: Saturday, 2013/08/17, 3:39 AM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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Geoengineering, by definition, is any deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract human-caused climate change. As the planet continues to warm, the potential solutions offered by geoengineering are tempting, and several serious projects are actively being pursued.
In the latest edition of the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?, Simon Nicholson, assistant professor in the School of International Service at American University, examines the pros and cons of such an approach to responding to climate change.
The technological prospects for geoengineering are vast, and fall into two main camps:
Solar Radiation Management (SRM)
SRM is a tactic that aims to reflect solar radiation back into space so that it is not absorbed by the atmosphere. The intent is to counteract heat-trapping gases by scattering or deflecting some percentage of incoming solar radiation by, for instance, streaming sulfate particles into the stratosphere or launching sunshades into
space.
Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)
CDR is an approach that involves drawing large amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere, and storing it where it won’t cause future harm. Land-based ideas have included carbon dioxide scrubbers that would pull
large quantities of carbon dioxide straight from the air, or growing forms of biomass and then reducing it to charcoal, which can be buried. Ocean-based ideas mostly involve the cultivation of plankton, which take
in carbon from the atmosphere and bring it to the bottom of the ocean with them when they die.
“SRM strategies are receiving the bulk of the attention,” says Nicholson. “It is hard to see a CDR scheme coming online quickly enough or being deployed at a large enough scale to make a real dent in the
atmospheric carbon load.”Yet Nicholson warns that solar radiation management is not any kind of real answer to climate change.
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Message edited by inbluevt - Saturday, 2013/08/17, 3:41 AM |
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