A dictionary (Webster's) definition of "catastrophe" is: "a sudden and terible 
event, e.g. an earthquake, flood or tornado, any disster affecting one or more 
persons". 
 
By this definition a giant meteorite hitting earth is a "catastrophe", but the 
relatively slow workings of climate change, while likely to be very serious, is 
not well-described as a "catastrophe".
 
For this reason, the cautionary position taken by Alan, and by Tom Wigley, and 
that are implicit in Ken's many clarificatory statements and in the Bala 
article he recently circulated, are well taken.
 
Level-headedness, to say nothing of science and political judgment, might 
benefit by (a lot) less use of the "c" word.
 
    Chris Green
 
 

________________________________

From: [email protected] on behalf of David Schnare
Sent: Sun 1/18/2009 12:18 AM
To: Alan Robock
Cc: [email protected]; [email protected]; John Nissen; Geoengineering FIPC
Subject: [geo] Re: Boston Globe-- SETI perspective of Earth - I'd like to hear 
more views on this


Alan:
 
You do not deny that there is insufficient political will to reduce carbon 
emissions to levels necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change.
 
You do not deny the catastrophic nature of impending climate change.
 
So, what do you want, to see food riots due to economic dislocation or food 
riots due to climate change?
 
Finally, you conflate getting research dollars with some half-baked plan for 
immediate full scale implementation of various forms of geoengineering.  I know 
of no one that is calling for the latter, so why are you presuming that's what 
this discussion is about.
 
The world cannot sit behind a desk, like you, and play with models, thinking 
that is sufficient to understand the actual effects of the various approaches 
being seriously considered.  The world needs to run the OIF study in the scale 
now being stopped by the environmental left - by people like you.  The world 
needs to test SRM, either with aerosols or cloud albedo adjustment, but you and 
your ilk stand in the way.
 
If you want to advance the science, then get behind a $20 million research 
effort and don't spend it all on modeling that does nothing more than make 
guesses as to real world implication.  Stand up and speak publicly about the 
threat of a continued do nothing approach masked as modeling studies.  
 
Or, accept the fact that you and yours will be as guilty for the food riots as 
the deniers (nice scientific term, by the way).  
 
In prosaic terms, either you are part of the solution or you are part of the 
problem.  Which is it Alan.
 
d.


On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Alan Robock <[email protected]> wrote:


        I can't stand it anymore.
        
        How can all of you advocate geoengineering and try to build public 
support for it before the science is done?  How can you advocate something that 
may be much worse than the problem it is trying to solve?
        
        You are acting like politicians or lawyers trying to win an argument, 
having already made up your minds with no regard to other information.
        
        Why don't you behave like scientists and evaluate all the information? 
Granted, we will never have everything, but why not wait a couple years until 
much more research is done into the climate effects, engineering of delivery 
mechanisms, psychlogical effects of changing sky color, ozone depletion, and 
many other things?
        
        Why can't we agree to advocate together for enhanced research funding 
for geoengineering, and stop this premature advocacy for geoengineering itself?
        
        This irresponsible behavior of advocacy for geoengineering now will 
hurt responsible calls for research.  You will tarnish the rest of us who are 
trying to learn abouth the issue.
        
        If you were a program manager, how much money would you give a global 
warming denier for global warming research, knowing he has already made up his 
mind?  Think about it!  If you want to start a geoengineering advocacy group, 
go ahead but clearly separate yourself from responsible scientists.
        
        Alan
        
        Alan Robock, Professor II
         Director, Meteorology Undergraduate Program
         Associate Director, Center for Environmental Prediction
        Department of Environmental Sciences        Phone: +1-732-932-9800 x6222
        Rutgers University                                  Fax: +1-732-932-8644
        14 College Farm Road                   E-mail: [email protected]
        New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551  USA      
http://envsci.rutgers.edu/~robock 



        On Sat, 17 Jan 2009, David Schnare wrote:
        
        

                Albert has asked me how to argue in a manner that will help 
build wide
                public support for geoengineering.  Here are my suggestions, 
drawn from my
                paper of last March entitled The Uncomfortable Middle Ground 
(see:
                
http://www.thomasjeffersoninst.org/pdf/articles/Schnare_speech_2.pdf
                
                Step 1 - Identify all the high profile statements that the 
Kyoto limits have
                not worked, that governments refused to pass laws strict enough 
to prevent a
                climate catastrophe, and that people world wide refused to give 
up economic
                and personal growth in the name of climate change.
                
                Step 2 - Explain the belief that the failures of step one will 
destroy
                mankind as we know it due to the otherwise inevitable climate 
change.
                
                Step 3 - Explain that Step 1 and Step 2 result in the 
destruction of
                civilization as we know it, either by economic catastrophe or by
                environmental catastrophe.
                
                Step 4 - Offer a third way - geoengineering (See the Wigley 
papers on how to
                use it in companion with carbon emission reduction) - an option 
that avoids
                destruction of civilization as we know it; and admit that it 
may harm 5% of
                the world (and less than 1% of civilization), but that is a 
much smaller
                risk than harming 100%, than seeing food riots, than seeing 
mass starvation,
                than seeing inundation of the homes and businesses of over half 
the world
                economy, of death of families, neighborhoods, and nations.
                
                Publicly challenge the environmental activists to pick a side - 
death by
                economic harm, death by political inaction, death by climate 
change, or life
                through geoengineering.
                
                End of argument.
                
                Now comes the hard part - getting that message out.  I have 
thoughts about
                that too, but until I see some environmental activists, 
including several on
                this group, speak up and admit their approach (world socialism, 
population
                reduction, and economic misery) is not going to be politically 
acceptable,
                and thus geoengineering research NOW is essential, then I'm 
just going to
                watch this area of research remain in its muddle, since any 
further effort
                would be a waste of time.  Leadership must come from the 
extreme left at
                this point.
                
                David Schnare
                
                On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 4:24 PM, Albert Kallio 
<[email protected]>wrote:
                
                

                        I just wonder if you could suggest we overcome these 
innate evolutionary
                        tendencies.
                        
                        I think our best chance as a survival of human species 
is to intensively
                        train ourselves and society to sustainability.
                        
                        Otherwise, there is a risk that mankind becomes like 
overgrown mushroom,
                        still growing but rot inside and full of worms. In a 
way this is how the
                        Popcorn Theory of Evolution sees the apex of evolution. 
Classical evolution
                        being the thesis where life develops into higher and 
higher forms (physical
                        evolution >> biological evolution >> social evolution), 
then comes the
                        antithesis, the crash and all advanced higher forms 
began to fail due to
                        resource over-exploitation, the final phase being the 
synthesis where all
                        the advanced life degenerates back into a stable form 
of primitive single
                        cellular life, the consumed resources being locked 
until the solar system
                        comes to its natural end.
                        
                        In a way the pop-n'-puff ('popcorn') evolution is a 
directionless movement
                        of life phenomenan through spacetime that creates and 
degenerates life
                        indiscriminately without any indefinite, deterministic,
                        directional tendencies for the higher species 
continuously becomed 'better
                        and better' as the classical Darwinian theory of 
natural selection may
                        suggest.
                        
                        As it is Darvins 200 year anniversary, I would not 
accuse Darwin not
                        spotting 150 years ago that the process is entirely 
directionless: so far we
                        have been riding on the rising wave crest, but now the 
climate change may
                        well reach the tipping point of the wave crest in our 
evolutionary phase
                        within the Earth's history.
                        
                        SETI proves that the Earth system may be a typical 
executor of the
                        'popcorn' evolution where the dominant leading species 
is hell-bent to
                        dismantle its own collective ecological foundations.
                        
                        People who say Darwin is so wrong, I think they should 
look better at him
                        more like Isaac Newton of his age who created basic 
theory of mechanics, it
                        later to be complemented with the additional 
perspectives and complexities
                        of Albert Einsteins theory of relativity and quantum 
phenomena.
                        
                        In case of Darwin he could never have seen that man was 
about to destroy
                        major Earth systems in their entirety such as the 
Amazon rainforest, world
                        wide coral reef bleachings and ocean acidification, 
fish out the ocean to
                        the last individual fish, starting to melt the Arctic 
Ocean sea ice and
                        glaciers by all his greehouse gases emissions, 
excessive recless tree
                        felling, fossil fuels use, and over-fishing destroying 
the balances
                        from tropics to permafrost.
                        
                        Your comments would much be appreciated how do we 
encounter and re-train
                        ourselves away from this suggested deterministic 
evolutionary outcome of a
                        more recent evolution so that we as a species do not 
produce the final crest
                        and get back to Martian stable state of incapacitated 
single cellular live
                        that ekes out its existence in the silts.
                        
                        *I do believe the only solution behind all the other 
soltutiosn is to
                        solve the global warming is education, education, 
education.. towards
                        sustainable energy and land use and forms of 
transportation to get between A
                        and B. People need to be educated to the sustainability 
and then all the
                        rest of action will follow.*
                        
                        Rgs,
                        
                        Albert
                        
                        ------------------------------
                        
                        From: [email protected]
                        To: [email protected]; [email protected];
                        [email protected]
                        Subject: [geo] Boston Globe-- Very Interesting SETI 
perspective of Earth
                        Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:55:15 +0000
                        
                        
                        E: [geo] Re: Boston Globe-- Very Interesting SETI 
perspective of Earth
                        
                        
                        
                        *SETI Implication to Geoengineering*
                        
                        
                        
                        I have been a patron of The Planetary Society's 
project, the Search for the
                        Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), that has been 
scanning countless
                        nearby stars in the northern and southern hemisphere 
with very large radio
                        telescopes.
                        
                        
                        
                        Despite massive distributed computer networks and 
excellent decryption
                        algorithms that are deployed to detect and listen into 
any intelligent
                        communications that occur in the space using radio 
communications. What the
                        SETI result is? Is there life, anything, just more 
advanced than that which
                        NASA yesterday stipulated that may exist in Mars? 
(References & links
                        below.)
                        
                        
                        
                        The answer is: *NO.*  The SETI scanning has never 
produced any positive
                        result for advanced life and it seems that there is not 
any single advanced
                        civilisations in nearby stars using radio 
communications (due to pure lack
                        of radio signals which should be intense enough and 
detectable with the
                        radio telescope technology we already posses).
                        
                        
                        
                        We have the answer already. There is no intelligent 
life out anywhere in
                        space, we need to ask the question: Why?
                        
                        
                        
                        SETI forms an important consideration and possibly a 
framework within
                        geoengineering why it may or may not be carried out.  
The answer for the
                        apparent lack (or utmost scarcity) of intelligent 
civilizations in tens of
                        thousands nearby solar systems scanned is readily 
answered by "The Popcorn
                        Theory of Evolution". What the hell that means?
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        *The Popcorn Paradigm*
                        
                        
                        
                        A Popcorn Theory of Evolution suggests that there will 
always be an
                        inherent lack (or at least immense scarcity) of 
advanced life forms in the
                        universe because within the destructive processes of 
evolution itself the
                        populations pop in and out of existence (much alike the 
vacuum energy that
                        materialises and annihilates upon itself in the vacuum).
                        
                        
                        
                        No advanced life forms have been found in space as the 
life pops-and-puffs,
                        in and out of the existence, by the whim of its 
smallest constituent
                        element, individual, that makes up the advanced 
populations in the planetary
                        ecosystems.
                        
                        
                        
                        The reason for existence-threatening puff is found 
within the innate
                        resource-hungriness of an individual that then drives 
out the sustainability
                        of the Gaia (self-regulating ecosystems) to brinks of 
collapses due to the
                        population booms in combination with associated 
technological booms (that in
                        initial transition population growth phase facilitate 
and help in sustenance
                        of all advanced civilizations) that are using radio 
technologies to
                        communicate.
                        
                        
                        
                        The 'deterministic grab' of an individual, its resource 
hungriness, then
                        ultimately drives out all advanced specie systems into 
their ultimate
                        collapses due to the insatiable resource-hungriness in 
use resources for
                        imminent pleasure.  Therefore, the Earth control system 
is now transiting
                        from the productive pop phase to the puff phase, where 
the leading species
                        crashes and takes with it much of the rest of the Gaia, 
leaving no radio
                        operators behind.
                        
                        
                        
                        When a capacity of species is very limited, such as the 
arctic rodent
                        - lemming, which happily copulates every now and then, 
enjoying pleasure of
                        sex and food and producing the maximum litter as much 
as individual can, its
                        population grows and its consumption eventually reaches 
the supply side
                        limit until no further resource for sustenance is left 
and the numbers
                        collapse to zero at the core range occupied by that 
species. Then from the
                        periphery ranges, few survivors emerge who will find 
the decimated area
                        vacated and growing in plenty of food, and then happily 
re-fill the area
                        where lemming population had been decimated to zero.
                        
                        
                        
                        The implication of SETI research for geoengineering is 
that the more
                        advanced a species becomes, the more will be its 
ecological
                        reach. Therefore, every planetary system arrives to an 
evolutionary tipping
                        point where the capacity of the advanced species' 
(either in isolation or in
                        combination) reaches and exceeds the cliff-edge and the 
entire,
                        self-regulatory, planetary Gaia system ecological high 
structure falls apart
                        due to the dominant species (or group of species).
                        
                        
                        
                        The puff-phase in the popcorn evolution then leaves 
nothing behind but a
                        fossil planet (aside a few extremely simple, 
single-cellular life forms
                        that no longer tip system back towards its earlier 
complexity) as the
                        materials have been consumed and locked efficiently in 
a way that they do
                        not re-emerge in the useable life span of ordinary sun.
                        
                        
                        
                        Thus when it comes to technologically advanced species, 
such as ourselves,
                        The Planetary Society's SETI programme searches suggest 
that we are alone
                        amongst the tens of thousands solar systems scanned for 
advanced
                        communications. This leading to conclusion that most 
advanced life forms
                        must all have gone bust as the individual innate 
survival instinct is much
                        greater force than the collective architecture for 
specie's survival.
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        *Deterministic Nature of Evolution*
                        
                        
                        
                        Therefore, the Search for the Extraterrestrial 
Intelligence (SETI) is
                        suggestive that no advanced civilisation can exist on 
sustainable basis and
                        therefore schemes such as geoengineering, well meaning, 
may be directed
                        against the very nature of universe to create and 
annihilate its advanced
                        civilizations due to a destabilising 
resource-hungriness at the core of
                        individual survival instinct and individual pleasure 
seeking that rejects
                        the ecological architectures.
                        
                        
                        
                        Let me suggest, that a great deal more education is put 
onto ecological
                        sustainability as the SETI research is quite suggestive 
that no advanced
                        life seems to appear at present even in favourable 
solar systems in so huge
                        numbers. Can geoengineers train Homo Sapiens to behave 
sensible instructions
                        like dog, or does it retain individual independence of 
Felix Catus, until
                        there is no more breathable air and food left for the 
kitten?
                        
                        
                        
                        By definition the evolution dictates that human species 
inherited a complex
                        social hierarchy and behaviours from their ancestors, 
the apes, that are
                        pack animals with a complex set of behaviours related 
to determining the
                        individuals' position in the social hierarchy of the 
species. All advanced
                        species do exhibit these various postures and other 
means of nonverbal
                        communication that express their states of mind to 
status and control
                        function. These sophisticated forms of social cognition 
and communication,
                        often expressed through insatiable consumption, and 
legitimised as need for
                        the infinite economic growth, may still be utilised for 
mankind's
                        trainability and ability to fit into the Earth system 
and into ecologically
                        sustainable social situations where individual social 
hierarchy is still
                        expressible.
                        
                        
                        
                        Let us resolve the problem of reaction and energise the 
society like a war
                        economy to create energy and transport sustainably, 
make plans in place for
                        adaptation when the adverse comes, and motivate backing 
for geoengineering.
                        
                        
                        
                        Let us make geoengineering the end and high apex of the 
evolution to save
                        the world!
                        
                        
                        
                        *Veli Albert Kallio*, FRGS
                        
                        Frozen Isthmuses' Protection Campaign
                        
                        of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans
                        
                        
                        
                        References and Links to Primitive Life NASA Claims may 
have been found:
                        
                        
                        
                        *New light on Mars methane mystery *Scientists detect 
seasonal releases of
                        methane gas on Mars and say either geological activity 
or life could be the
                        cause.
                        
                        
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/7829315.stm*<http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/7829315.stm>
 


                        
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/marsmethane.html
                        
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jan/HQ_09-006_Mars_Methane.html
                        http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/main/index.html
                        
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/marsmethane_media.html
                        
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2133475.ece
                        
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2137842.ece
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        
                        

                                 > The trouble is that the Earth system is not 
driven by some life
                                

                        force, as in
                        

                                 > the Gaia theory.  Nor is it driven by 
suicidal tendencies, as in the
                                

                        Medea
                        

                                 > idea.  The Earth system has behaved in the 
way it has, because it
                                

                        needed to
                        

                                 > produce us.  Putting that the other way 
round, we wouldn't be here to
                                 > appreciate our own development if the 
universe wasn't precisely as it
                                

                        is,
                        

                                 > and the history of our planet had not been 
much as it has been. This
                                

                        is the
                        

                                 > anthropic principle [3] [4], but I'm 
applying to geological history.
                                
                                 > So, if you like, there may have been many 
chance events during the
                                

                        past four
                        

                                 > billion years that enabled human life to 
develop eventually.  And
                                

                        there have
                        

                                 > almost certainly been chance events and 
situations that have enabled
                                 > civilisation to develop and the human 
population to explode to its
                                

                        current
                        

                                 > level.
                                
                                 > These chance events (and absence of events) 
for our own survival are
                                 > unlikely to continue.  Therefore we are most 
likely to have to
                                

                        intervene for
                        

                                 > own survival.  This message is most obvious 
for the absence of events
                                

                        such
                        

                                 > as super  and large bodies colliding with 
the Earth.  We can
                                

                        appreciate the
                        

                                 > danger, partly because we can think of it as 
far in the future or
                                

                        very
                        

                                 > theoretical, and therefore can be detached 
about it [5].
                                




                                Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:01:03 -0800
                                Subject: [geo] Re: Boston Globe-- Very 
Interesting anti-Gaia perspective
                                

                        of Earth
                        

                                From: [email protected]
                                To: [email protected]
                                
                                
                                A teleological, anthropomorphic description of 
a "series of suicide
                                attempts" seems just as silly as a 
teleological, anthropomorphic
                                description of a loving mother-goddess. In the 
range of possible
                                states of the system, there are regions of 
negative feedback and other
                                regions of positive feedback. The system spends 
most of its time in
                                regions of negative feedback, for the obvious 
reason that it tends to
                                stay in those when it's in them. But changes 
such as the appearance
                                of a new metabolic pathway can nudge it into a 
region of positive
                                feedback, sometimes leading to mass extinction.
                                
                                Was the argument about anything but imagery and 
rhetoric?
                                
                                On Jan 16, 2:51 am, "John Gorman" 
<[email protected]> wrote:
                                

                                        I also agree completely. i thought 
Andrews  email was very clear.
                                        My hope is that the Royal Society's 
report this spring will reach the
                                        

                        same conclusion.
                        


                                        john Gorman
                                        
                                         ----- Original Message -----
                                         From: John Nissen
                                         To: [email protected] ; 
[email protected]
                                         Cc: geoengineering ; Peter Read ; 
[email protected]
                                         Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 11:15 
PM
                                         Subject: [geo] Re: Boston Globe-- Very 
Interesting anti-Gaia
                                        

                        perspective of Earth
                        


                                         Hi Andrew,
                                        
                                         I agree with you absolutely:
                                        
                                         I think we need to be focussed very 
carefully on preventing any
                                         significant sudden climate change.  
According to my reading of the
                                         Arctic sea ice data, this means we 
have to act almost immediately if
                                         we are to use 'gentle geoengineering'. 
 Something far more onerous
                                        

                        may
                        

                                         be required if we dawdle and argue for 
a year or two.
                                         
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_shrinkage
                                        
                                         That to me is completely rational.  
But why aren't people leaping
                                        

                        into action?
                        


                                         My point was that our "world view" 
affects the way we consider our
                                        

                        present condition, and can produce irrational 
behaviour.  If we (as a
                        society) had a world view that expected disaster, then 
we would be on the
                        lookout for imminent disasters to ward them off.  As it 
is, we are looking
                        at the Arctic sea ice disappearing, and behaving as if 
we can't or shouldn't
                        try and save it - quite irrational.
                        


                                         Cheers,
                                        
                                         John
                                        
                                         ----- Original Message -----
                                         From: "Andrew Lockley" 
<[email protected]>
                                         To: <[email protected]>
                                         Cc: "geoengineering" 
<[email protected]>
                                         Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 10:16 
AM
                                         Subject: [geo] Re: Boston Globe-- Very 
Interesting anti-Gaia
                                        

                        perspective of Earth
                        


                                         I think this debate has become overly 
narrowed by it's focus on
                                         survival.  Our existence is testament 
to to survival of a mere
                                         fraction of our ancestors.  The 
genetic records suggests that at
                                         several point in human history, entire 
races or the species itself
                                         were reduced to a few individuals.
                                         
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe
                                        
                                         I think we should be looking at 
preserving civilisation, not merely a
                                         few scattered individuals eking out an 
existence in a
                                        

                        post-apocalyptic
                        

                                         wasteland (a la Mad Max or Terminator).
                                        
                                         Many writers have suggested that 
civilisations of whatever complexity
                                         just aren't that stable in the face of 
even temporary climate change.
                                         The Toba eruption, the Mayan collapse, 
the Clovis event and the
                                        

                        1159BC
                        

                                         cooling event are examples among many.
                                        
                                        

                        
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10884-collapse-of-civilisations...
                        


                                         Further, the complexity of our society 
makes it far less robust than
                                         distributed, agrarian societies of the 
past.
                                        
                                        

                        
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826501.500-the-demise-of-civi...
                        


                                         I think we need to be focussed very 
carefully on preventing any
                                         significant sudden climate change.  
According to my reading of the
                                         Arctic sea ice data, this means we 
have to act almost immediately if
                                         we are to use 'gentle geoengineering'. 
 Something far more onerous
                                        

                        may
                        

                                         be required if we dawdle and argue for 
a year or two.
                                         
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_shrinkage
                                        
                                         A
                                        
                                         2009/1/15 Bonnelle Denis 
<[email protected]>:
                                        
                                         > Dear all,
                                        
                                         > I am surprised that time orders of 
magnitude are not considered as
                                        

                        a main parameter in such a debate.
                        


                                         > It is an interesting idea that 
"Although windows of stability are
                                        

                        possible, they are simply respites between catastrophic 
boom-and-bust
                        cycles", but those windows have proved able to be 
stable during tens of
                        millions years (ice ages oscillations - driven by 
positive feedback forces -
                        have developed within a "tunnel" of precise limits 
which operated as rather
                        efficient negative feedbacks, so I'm speaking only 
about the major events
                        which really threatened life itself).
                        


                                         > I agree with the anthropic 
principle, which says that things are
                                        

                        what they are but that if there had been thousands of 
narrow escapes, very
                        likely we wouldn't be here to discuss them. So, things 
are what they are but
                        there are some reasons that the number of such narrow 
escapes is lower than
                        ten in 4 billion years.
                        


                                         > So, three time orders of magnitude 
should be considered:
                                        
                                         > - geological time: the Gaia model 
would probably provide us with
                                        

                        some tens of millions years of security, even if in the 
longer run the Medea
                        one could override it;
                        

                                         > - anthropogenic perturbation time: 
will we, e.g., reach the 800 ppm
                                        

                        CO2 level in 2040 or 2100 or never?
                        

                                         > - science progress time: when will 
there be enough knowledge for us
                                        

                        to either offer the economy clean and cheap solutions 
such a renewable
                        energies, or be able to fix the climate (using 
geoengineering) in a safe
                        way?
                        


                                         > Two conclusions can be drawn from 
this:
                                         > - the Gaia / Medea debate is not an 
emergency from a practical
                                        

                        point of view (it may be relevant from a political / 
symbolic one)
                        

                                         > - there is a race among 
anthropogenic perturbation time and science
                                        

                        progress time, and every efforts should be considered 
as adding up rather
                        than competing against each other: curbing the CO2 
emissions is necessary to
                        slow the anthropogenic perturbation down, and 
investigating, at the same
                        time, "fundamental applied physics", massive renewable 
energies economics,
                        and geoengineering, is safer than relying on only one 
tool to fix the
                        climate up.
                        


                                         > The third possible debate: "should 
geoengineering be promoted in
                                        

                        order to protect us from Medea's dangers?" (surveying 
and fighting every
                        dangerous asteroids, and biological equivalents of such 
an idea) is, from a
                        theoretical point of view, equally interesting, but it 
is clearly not that
                        urgent.
                        


                                         > Cheers,
                                        
                                         > Denis Bonnelle.
                                        
                                         > -----Message d'origine-----
                                         > De : [email protected] 
[mailto:
                                        

                        [email protected]] De la part de John 
Nissen
                        

                                         > Envoyé : mercredi 14 janvier 2009 
18:08
                                         > À : [email protected]; 
[email protected]
                                         > Cc : geoengineering; Peter Read; 
[email protected];
                                        

                        Martin J Rees
                        

                                         > Objet : [geo] Re: Boston Globe-- 
Very Interesting anti-Gaia
                                        

                        perspective of Earth
                        


                                         > Dear all,
                                        
                                         > I think this kind of life-force 
thinking runs very deep, and
                                        

                        prevents us
                        

                                         > acting appropriately.
                                        
                                         > Just about the whole environment 
movement seems to be based on a
                                        

                        thinking
                        

                                         > that the planet is naturally stable, 
and if only mankind can behave
                                         > "naturally", all will be well - the 
negative feedbacks will kick in
                                        

                        to halt
                        

                                         > the current global warming and bring 
the temperature back to
                                        

                        normal.
                        

                                         > Putting vast amounts of CO2 in the 
atmosphere is not "natural".
                                        

                         Putting
                        

                                         > sulphur in the air is not "natural". 
 Both are CO2 and sulphur
                                        

                        compounds are
                        

                                         > seen as pollutants, and therefore, 
by definition bad.
                                        
                                         > This leads to illogical behaviour.  
We have to reduce sulphur
                                        

                        emissions,
                        

                                         > although this leads to exacerbate 
global warming - possibly causing
                                        

                        the
                        

                                         > visible acceleration in global 
warming in mid 80s shown in the
                                        

                        glacier ice
                        

                                         > mass loss record (a good proxy for 
global temperature) [1] [2].  I
                                        

                        know that
                        

                                         > the argument is supposedly all about 
acid rain and asthma, but it
                                        

                        has
                        

                                         > inhibited our clear thinking about 
the possibility of using
                                        

                        stratospheric
                        

                                         > aerosols to cool the planet.
                                        
                                         > And, as another illogicality, our 
view of CO2 as pollutant makes us
                                        

                        think
                        

                                         > that, because CO2 has caused global 
warming, therefore cutting our
                                        

                        emissions
                        

                                         > will solve all our problems.  This 
blinds us to seeing that the
                                        

                        Arctic sea
                        

                                         > ice problem cannot be solved by 
cutting CO2 emissions and we have
                                        

                        to apply
                        

                                         > geoengineering.
                                        
                                         > But geoengineering in general is 
seen as unnatural.  Our instinct
                                        

                        is to let
                        

                                         > the planet sort itself out, with 
minimum interference from
                                        

                        ourselves.  We
                        

                                         > seem even happy for another 2 
degrees global warming, although
                                        

                        global
                        

                                         > warming is already causing enormous 
problems.
                                        
                                         > The trouble is that the Earth system 
is not driven by some life
                                        

                        force, as in
                        

                                         > the Gaia theory.  Nor is it driven 
by suicidal tendencies, as in
                                        

                        the Medea
                        

                                         > idea.  The Earth system has behaved 
in the way it has, because it
                                        

                        needed to
                        

                                         > produce us.  Putting that the other 
way round, we wouldn't be here
                                        

                        to
                        

                                         > appreciate our own development if 
the universe wasn't precisely as
                                        

                        it is,
                        

                                         > and the history of our planet had 
not been much as it has been.
                                        

                        This is the
                        

                                         > anthropic principle [3] [4], but I'm 
applying to geological
                                        

                        history.
                        


                                         > So, if you like, there may have been 
many chance events during the
                                        

                        past four
                        

                                         > billion years that enabled human 
life to develop eventually.  And
                                        

                        there have
                        

                                         > almost certainly been chance events 
and situations that have
                                        

                        enabled
                        

                                         > civilisation to develop and the 
human population to explode to its
                                        

                        current
                        

                                         > level.
                                        
                                         > These chance events (and absence of 
events) for our own survival
                                        

                        are
                        

                                         > unlikely to continue.  Therefore we 
are most likely to have to
                                        

                        intervene for
                        

                                         > own survival.  This message is most 
obvious for the absence of
                                        

                        events such
                        

                                         > as super  and large bodies colliding 
with the Earth.  We can
                                        

                        appreciate the
                        

                                         > danger, partly because we can think 
of it as far in the future or
                                        

                        very
                        

                                         > theoretical, and therefore can be 
detached about it [5].
                                        
                                         > What we seem unable to do is to 
appreciate an impending disaster
                                        

                        which could
                        

                                         > take us all out.  We cannot think 
that such a thing is possible.
                                        

                         Yet it is
                        

                                         > staring us in the face.  It is the 
Arctic sea ice disappearance and
                                         > consequent massive methane release.  
That could kill us all, and
                                        

                        most of
                        

                                         > life, through global heating far 
above the 6 degrees hell mark.
                                        
                                         > Cheers,
                                        
                                         > John
                                        
                                         > [1]  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_mass_balance
                                         > [2] See also Haeberli comments in:
                                        
                                        ...
                                        
                                        read more »
                                        





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-- 
David W. Schnare
Center for Environmental Stewardship




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