Dear Wil,
I came across your email from end of September which I'd unfortunately
overlooked. I'm very interested in David Keith's idea [1], especially
for the application of cooling the Arctic. He points to this reference:
26. MacCracken MC (2009) /On the possible use of geoengineering to
moderate specific climate change impacts/. Environ Res Lett 4:045107 [2]
In the abstract, Mike MacCracken writes:
/
Among the most damaging aspects of the climate that might be countered
are: the warming of low-latitude oceans that observations suggest
contribute to more intense tropical cyclones and coral bleaching; the
amplified warming of high latitudes and the associated melting of ice
that has been accelerating sea level rise and altering mid-latitude
weather; and the projected reduction in the loading and cooling
influence of sulfate aerosols, which has the potential to augment
warming sufficient to trigger methane and carbon feedbacks./
However, the most immediate, glaring, danger is from *accelerated
warming in the Arctic as sea ice retreats, threatening discharge of vast
quantities of methane from permafrost*. Even if only 10% of carbon were
released as methane over a twenty year period, it would exacerbate
global warming by a factor of at least 40 times, by simple calculation
[3], knowing the global warming potential of methane [4] and quantities
of carbon [5]. One can envisage runaway global warming producing an
abrupt and catastrophic climate change which no human could survive.
This has to be stopped, and geoengineering, particularly by SRM, appears
to be the only possible means. It is about time that the scientific
community woke up to this realisation, and worked towards readiness for
*full-scale deployment of several mutually supportive geoengineering
techniques within two years* (i.e. ready for spring 2013) if that is
conceivably possible. Even that could be too late, but there is no
alternative but to do our damnedest.
Best wishes,
John
[1] http://www.pnas.org/content/107/38/16428.full.pdf+html
[2] http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/4/4/045107/fulltext
[3] Current anthropogenic global warming arises from forcing equivalent
to the excess of 100 ppm out of 290 ppm atmospheric CO2. (Other
forcings balance out approximately, e.g. considering the negative
forcing of tropospheric sulphate aerosol [6]). Global warming potential
of methane is 72 over 20 years [4]. Carbon stored in permafrost is
estimated as about twice that in atmosphere [5], so 10% would add 58 ppm
of greenhouse gas, giving a multiplication factor on current global
warming of 72*58 /100, which is over 40.
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_potential
[5] http://www.ccrc.unsw.edu.au/Copenhagen/Copenhagen_Diagnosis_LOW.pdf
See page 21:
/The total amount of carbon stored in permafrost has been estimated to
be around 1672 Gt (1 Gt = 109 tons), of which ~277 Gt are contained in
peatlands (Schuur et al. 2008; Tarnocai et al. 2009). This represents
about twice the amount of carbon contained in the atmosphere/.
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiative_forcing
---
On 30/09/2010 02:31, Wil Burns wrote:
FYI, from Environmental Research Web, a summary of David Keith's new
piece in PNAS ( for the PNAS piece, see:
http://www.pnas.org/content/107/38/16428). wil
Geoengineering: nanoparticles could beat sulphates Particles with
designer electrostatic and magnetic properties could hover over poles
and away from ozone layer
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/m/1863/207604/article/news/43837
--
Dr. Wil Burns, Editor in Chief
Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy
1702 Arlington Blvd.
El Cerrito, CA 94530 USA
Ph: 650.281.9126
Fax: 510.779.5361
[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/13880292.asp
SSRN site: http://ssrn.com/author=240348
Skype ID: Wil.Burns
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Climate Intervention" 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/climateintervention?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.
