Dear Josh,
You forget one thing. The Arctic Council has absolutely no jurisdiction
over global climate. And you cannot confine geoengineering to the
Arctic. These were clear conclusions from the Asilomar Conference. You
are jumping the gun.
The Icelandic volcano so far has put out very little SO2, and will have
no climatic impact. Yet it shut down air traffic over Europe.
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 4/15/2010 6:37 PM, Josh wrote:
Is anyone aware of organized efforts to place geoengineering on the
agenda of the Arctic Council? Several commentators have raised this
possibility, but I am unaware of any systematic effort to accomplish
this. Focusing on the Arctic Council offers a number of advantages:
- The Arctic Council is much less politicized than bodies like
UNFCCC. Indeed, the AC is unknown to the general public. The AC
would provide a forum that is less heated, less confrontational, and
less burdened by the weight of history.
- Membership in the AC is relatively small and manageable. It is
composed of relatively developed countries with the resources to
pursue geoengineering. Most of those countries that have indicated
some degree of openness to intervention belong to the AC.
- Given that the Arctic is disproportionately affected by climate
change, the AC and its member states would be more likely to consider
climate interventions. In the Arctic, climate is changing and people
know it. Native peoples may be supportive of geoengineering.
- Arctic climate change is an urgent issue, so geoengineering in the
Arctic is a logical place to begin. A limited geographic focus would
diminish opposition and give the science a chance to prove itself.
For these and other reasons, the AC offers a promising venue for field
tests and possible deployment. Nature has also provided us with a
potential public relations coup - the current Iceland volcano. If
this eruption could be shown to result in reduced temperatures,
thicker sea ice, more polar bear cubs, etc., the argument for
stratospheric injections would look much more compelling.
Josh Horton
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