Hi Wil, There's no mention of methane or cooling the Arctic. Why are these so rarely mentioned in such reports, when arguably the most urgent application for geoengineering is to cool the Arctic and try to prevent a methane excursion?
However this document is a fair representation of the state of the art, and is useful in drawing attention to the importance of satellite monitoring, and recent problems: "*For example, NASA’s Glory Climate Satellite, intended to collect data on aerosols and solar energy in the atmosphere, recently failed to reach orbit at its launch.*" Such monitoring could be vital in following the effects of geoengineering techniques, especially in spotting any adverse side-effects before they become critical. And I am pleased to see mention of biochar, and reference to the late Peter Read's work on this. However it's disappointing that biochar didn't score higher under the CDR heading, being a well-established technology, and far cheaper than air capture. The report throws doubt on the ability of biochar to scale up sufficiently to have an impact on CO2 levels - though that doubt was thrown on all the techniques. And the report suggests a dependency on having a carbon market, which is rubbish. I think the biochar people should make a formal complaint to GAO about their findings on biochar. Cheers, John --- On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 10:09 PM, Wil Burns <[email protected]>wrote: > I'm running behind on my email, so my apologies if this has already been > posted, the GAO's new report on geoengineering: > http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1171.pdf > > wil > > Dr. Wil Burns, Associate Director > > Master of Science - Energy Policy & Climate Program > > Johns Hopkins University > > 1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW > > Room 104J > > Washington, DC 20036 > > 202.663.5976 (Phone) > > [email protected] > > > http://advanced.jhu.edu/academic/environmental/master-of-science-in-energy-policy-and-climate/ > > SSRN site (selected publications): http://ssrn.com/author=240348 > > > > Skype ID: Wil.Burns > > > > Teaching Climate/Energy Law & Policy Blog: > http://www.teachingclimatelaw.org > > > -- > 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. > -- 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.
