Dear Colleagues, I have had no responses to my message about the lack of history in your report. Did you receive it?
Jim Fleming On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 10:55 AM, James Fleming <[email protected]> wrote: > Some comments on > IPCC Expert Meeting on Geoengineering, Lima, Peru, 20-22 June 2011 > > Meeting Report Edited by: > Ottmar Edenhofer, Ramon Pichs-Madruga, Youba Sokona, Christopher Field, > Vicente Barros, > Thomas Stocker, Qin Dahe, Jan Minx, Katharine Mach, Gian-Kasper Plattner, > Steffen Schlömer, > Gerrit Hansen, Michael Mastrandrea, > > Dear Colleagues, > > Here are some wrong or ill-advised statements in the draft report, arrived > at, in part, by choosing to ignore history. Please take them as > constructive criticism and note my continuing interest in remaining > involved in these discussions. > > Jim Fleming > > *"The concept of geoengineering can be traced back to the 1960s." (p. 2) > -- *It is in fact an ancient concept, rooted in classical myth and > hubris, and discussed throughout history, including the 1830s when building > an "artificial volcano" was being discussed. Geoengineering was widely > discussed after 1945 and practiced *in fact* (not a concept) in 1958 and > 1962 in projects Argus and Starfish Prime using nuclear weapons to > intervene in Earth's magnetosphere. The USSR made similar efforts. Note > that this was high atmospheric and near space geoengineering. > References. > J.R. Fleming, *Fixing the Sky: The checkered history of weather and > climate control.* Columbia University Press, 2010. J.R. Fleming, “Iowa > Enters the Space Age: James Van Allen, Earth’s Radiation Belts, and > Experiments to Disrupt Them.” *Annals of Iowa* 70 (Fall 2011), 301-24; > available in America: History & Life with Full Text. > > *"There are basically three ways to change the climate." (p. 19)* -- Yet > according to climatologist C. E. P. Brooks writing in 1950, "There are at > least nine and sixty ways of constructing a theory of climatic change, and > there is probably some truth in quite a number of them." > Reference: > J.R. Fleming, *Historical Perspectives on Climate Change.* Oxford > University Press, 1998. > > *"Are there some aspects of SRM that require expertise that is missing > from the author teams of Working Group I, II and III? Are there other > things the author teams can do to improve their ability to develop a high > quality assessment? The BOG felt that there is no obvious missing expertise > amongst the lead authors. For specific questions that may need further > consideration, it is advisable to involve others as contributing authors." > (p. 93)* -- Obviously, there was no sense of history in the report, and > seemingly a rather perfunctory discussion of ethics. > > > > -- > James Fleming > STS Program > Colby College > 5881 Mayflower Hill > Waterville, ME 04901 > Ph: 207-859-5881 > Fax: 207-859-5846 > Web: http://www.colby.edu/profile/jfleming <http://web.colby.edu/jfleming> > > > > -- James Fleming STS Program Colby College 5881 Mayflower Hill Waterville, ME 04901 Ph: 207-859-5881 Fax: 207-859-5846 Web: http://www.colby.edu/profile/jfleming <http://web.colby.edu/jfleming> -- 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.
