Hi all, Victor Smetacek wrote a paragraph for the Independent's review: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/what-can-we-do-to-save-our-planet-1221097.html
I emailed to him yesterday evening about my concerns for the Arctic sea ice. He has just replied with this plea from the heart to save the Himalayan glaciers (as well as the sea ice) see forwarded below. I had no idea the situation was so urgent. What can we do to help? Statospheric aerosols? Cloud brightening? Cloud seeding? Cheers, John ----- Original Message ----- From: Victor Smetacek To: John Nissen Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 12:13 AM Subject: Re: [geo] Add Icebergs to Sources of Iron Dear John, I was restricted to 150 words so I only alluded to "shrinking planetary ice stores" as a catch-all for the immediate problem you mention. I fully share your views and apprehensions regarding retreating Arctic sea ice - the approaching train is accelerating. However, I am even more apprehensive of seasonal drying up of the rivers fed by Himalayan glaciers on both sides which are retreating almost as rapidly as Arctic sea ice. I know, I grew up in the Himalayan foothills and have visited my family frequently over the past decades. The once splendidly white high ranges (abode of the snow = Himalaya) now look moth-eaten with big brown patches, when one manages to get a glimpse through the haze. Indian scientists have been studying the retreat but they are barely heard. The Asian brown haze is cooling the low-lands in the winters but not the higher elevations where apple orchards have collapsed and local farmers are considering growing mangoes instead! My home at 1,500 m elevation is now often warmer in winter than Delhi a few 100 m above sea level. The London pea-soup fog has descended on Delhi where flights are often cancelled in winter. The stronger cooling at low elevation than higher up has to do with the vertical aerosol gradient (a lot of it is road dust!) and seasonal sun angle. Hill people no longer migrate to the plains in winter, as they used to do for centuries. This is alarming! So the haze needs to be elevated over the Tibetan plateau, of course not the present haze which will stay low, but deliberate measures, except, it will not be difficult to plant a sulphur umbrella over the Arctic but what about the Tibetan plateau? So much for my concerns, I could go on, but am leaving tomorrow for the expedition (got to do something, bail out some water, draw attention to the problem...). I will be reading my mail but internet connections on board are slow. I feel in good company, thank you, Best wishes Victor ps you are welcome to share this if you wish. ----- Ursprüngliche Nachricht ----- Von: John Nissen <[email protected]> Datum: Montag, 5. Januar 2009, 23:46 Betreff: Re: [geo] Add Icebergs to Sources of Iron An: Victor Smetacek <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], George Monbiot <[email protected]> > Dear Victor, > Thanks very much for your comments to the questionnaire, which I happened to have seen already, here: > http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/what-can-we-do-to-save-our-planet-1221097.html > This is what I wrote in response, to the geoengineering group, from which I'd been supplied with the above URL: > Although the Arctic tipping points and sea ice are specifically > mentioned by Chris Rapley and Neil Wells, we have the situation that: > (a) none of the other experts seem aware both that the sea ice is a > potential tipping point for the Earth system - and (b) most > importantly, none of them recognise that emissions reduction is > useless to halt the retreat of the sea ice in the necessary > timescale. Indeed it is not conceivable to halt the sea ice retreat > without geoengineering to cool the region - and stratospheric aerosols > and marine cloud brightening are probably the only two feasible > techniques for cooling the region quickly enough to have a good chance > of halting the sea ice retreat. > What you have said is that we have a potentially overwhelming situation with CO2 and global warming, but I see that the Arctic sea ice disappearance as an equally overwhelming situation but with a timescale of years rather than decades. And the news always seems to get worse. I have just read a convincing argument that the sea ice could quite conceivably disappear at the end of summer next year! > We are very liable to be overwhelmed, so we have to put all necessary practical effort into saving the Arctic sea ice. I have proposed a project on this, with the focus, determination and urgency of the Manhattan project during WWII. Would the EU buy into this? Could they be persuaded? Are they too politically entrenched in "emissions reduction, reduction, reduction" without lateral thinking that geoengineering could possibly save the day? I am copying this to some EU people to whom I wrote on December 16th about geoengineering, and never received a reply! > Geoengineering with stratospheric aerosols or cloud brightening is not really a big deal - it's inexpensive, it doesn't effect the lives of citizens, and it's actually rather benign (side effects much overrated). We just need to get on and do it. Here is a saying (with apologies to George Monbiot): > If you are on the rails, and you see a train coming, you don't wait to see how fast it's coming - you jump! ---- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. 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