Again, this is speculating about motivation, which we are not supposed to be doing in this group.
Most journalists are trying to write factual and engaging stories. I think journalists talk about space sunshades because (a) there is a scientific literature about it (e.g., Early, Angel, Royal Society Report, etc), and (b) it is an entertaining concept to think about and part of journalism is entertainment. I do not think we need to assume nefarious political motives in writing about this option. I agree with you about Solar Radiation Management (sun block options) reducing near term risk while efforts to diminish atmospheric CO2 concentrations reduce long term risk. I have had journalists (and scientists!) talking to me as if it were the other way around. On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 11:54 PM, John Gorman <[email protected]> wrote: > I think all of us in favour of geoengineering look upon the space sunshades > idea as something put into articles by journalists to discredit > geoengineering. It is totally irrelevant because it couldn't be implemented > till very late in this century and we will have sorted out the CO2 balance > and energy systems by then. > > The time for SRM is the near future till we get CO2 extraction and non > carbon energy sorted. > > john gorman > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul" <[email protected]> > To: "geoengineering" <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 7:48 PM > Subject: Re: WWF also on geo-eng Re: [geo] Re: Friends of the Earth calls > for geoengineering research & states that mitigation is not enough to stay > safe > > > > Ken -- Excellent post. > > The British Friends of the Earth statement includes the sensible line: > “For the solar radiation techniques solar shades remains the stuff of > children’s sci-fi films.” > > Geoengineering is giving itself a bad name by appearing overly > enthusiastic about "Edward Teller" type ideas > > [Remember Teller -- the 'father of the H-bomb', and proposer of many > schemes to use nuclear devices for such purposes as extracting natural > gas from tight formations, building a new 'Panama Canal' and building > a deep water port in the far northwestern part of Alaska. The last of > these lead to Inuit (Native Alaskan) self-protective reactions with > consequences that last to this day. The long-term side-effects ended > up being larger than the proposed main effect]. > > The Sierra Club surely counts itself among organizations supporting > well-understood activities that sequester carbon (e.g. forests) or > change the albedo constructively (e.g. white roofs), and supporting > sensible research (e.g. on CCS). This focus is implicit in the name > or our main program: Climate Recovery Partnership (http:// > www.sierraclub.org/crp/) > > Research on concepts that will lead to increased ocean acidification > might be acceptable if married to technologies to offset those > effects. While "Everything is connected to everything else" is almost > tautologically true, connections are often small enough that they can > be ignored. With many geoengineering proposals -- not so. > > If the geoengineering community hopes to bring on board environmental > groups, it will need good answers to the kinds of questions implied by > the above. There's some good thinking in the as yet small > geoengineering literature on raising this kind of question. There's > as yet a dearth of compelling responses. > > Paul Craig > Sierra Club > > -- > 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]<geoengineering%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. > > > -- > 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]<geoengineering%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. > > -- 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.
