A nicely done article. I would like to expand on one of Ray Pierrehumbert's comments.
He is quoted as saying: “The term ‘solar radiation management’ is positively Orwellian. It’s a way to increase comfort levels with this crazy idea.” —Raymond Pierrehumbert He is right that it was created to inrease comfort level, but it was done so with ironic intent. In 2007, I was organizing a meeting that took place at NASA-Ames. (Incidentally, that meeting is where this google group started. http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20070031204) There was some nervousness on the part of local NASA officials that the term "geoengineering" might raise red flags back in Washington. At the time, DOE was talking about "carbon management" which was a bureaucratic way to speak about the potential for CO2 emissions reduction. To avoid the use of the word "geoengineering" in the meeting name, I suggested that we create the term "Solar Radiation Managment" to use for the workshop. It was meant as parody of US-government-style bureaucratic jargon. It was meant as a joke and was intentionally obscurantist. We were laughing about it at the time and never dreamed that it would become standard jargon. The term "Solar Radiation Management" was meant to lower the profile of the meeting while parodying Washington jargon. It amuses me that it has become standard jargon. What started out as parody has moved on from its comedic roots. Comedy has become drama. Incidentally, lately I have been using the term "solar geoengineering" as my term of choice to refer to what SRM has come to denote. Best, Ken _______________ Ken Caldeira Carnegie Institution for Science Dept of Global Ecology 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA +1 650 704 7212 [email protected] http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab @kencaldeira *Caldeira Lab is hiring postdoctoral researchers.* *http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab/Caldeira_employment.html* Our YouTube videos <http://www.youtube.com/user/CarnegieGlobEcology/videos> On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 5:29 AM, Simon Driscoll <[email protected]>wrote: > > http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/511016/a-cheap-and-easy-plan-to-stop-global-warming/ > > Ray Pierrehumbert recently sent this to me, and I haven't seen this posted > to the group (apologies if it has been and I missed it in a quick search), > so I thought it may be of interest. > > All the best, > > Simon > > ________________________________________________ > > Simon Driscoll > Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics > Department of Physics > University of Oxford > > Office: 01865 272930 > Mobile: 07935314940 > > http://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/contacts/people/driscoll > http://www.geoengineering.ox.ac.uk/people/who-are-we/simon-driscoll/ > http://80000hours.org/members/simon-driscoll > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "geoengineering" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
