See "The Ass's Dilemma" http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2009/spring/joseph-climate-engineering/
Here's an exerpt: “I’m not a fan,” Inez Fung said flatly when I asked her opinion of stratospheric aerosol injection. A petite woman in a pageboy haircut, Fung is a prominent figure in climatology—professor of atmospheric science at the University of California, Berkeley, co-director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment, and, like Caldeira, a contributor to the IPCC, which, in 2008, shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. I met her in her office last April in Berkeley’s McCone Hall. She sat in her office chair, arms folded tightly across her chest, one foot bobbing impatiently under the desk. “You don’t think it could serve as an insurance policy in the event of abrupt climate change?” I asked. “Heavens, no. What abrupt climate changes are you worried about?” “Well, what if the Greenland ice sheet starts to go far faster than anticipated? Would it make sense then to decrease temperatures in the hopes of stopping that process, since we’re talking about something like a twenty-foot rise in sea level? Would the ramifications be so serious that we could justify . . . ?” “I think a much more important thing is to say sea level will rise,” she answered. “Preventing it is just delaying it. I mean all this geoengineering is just delaying . . . It’s gonna go sooner or later.” “But wouldn’t it at least buy us time?” “What are we doing in the interim if the whole strategy is to buy time? If we just continue to squander energy, I wouldn’t support it.” Her foot bounced under her desk. “Geoengineering is not science fiction, okay?” she continued. “How do we test it? How do we know that it would work? The scientist’s responsibility is not just to propose wild ideas. The scientist’s responsibility is to say, ‘How do we test them?’” Her frustration seemed to grow as our interview progressed, and when I finally gathered my things to leave, I thanked her for putting up with my questions. She said, “No, no, it’s important not to just look at what is the last resort and ignore responsible action. It’s very American to want a quick fix, but the energy problem is the principal challenge for humankind—the two energy problems: not just the squandering of energy, but also the imbalance in energy access in the world.” “Sure,” I answered, “but recognizing that doesn’t do anything to solve the problem of climate change.” She took a deep breath before answering wearily. “There is no solving the problem. There is no solving the problem. All it is is slowing the symptoms.” --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
