Ken, the LBL the conversion metric suggests you can offset a tonne of CO2 for roughly every 20 square meters of black driveway you paint white.
If this is so, in terms of carbin footprints, the color of driveways longer than a few hundred meters may in some cases be as important as the fuel economy of the vehicles at the end of them. On Friday, September 6, 2013 1:09:59 PM UTC-4, Ken Caldeira wrote: > > The call to prudence by Schäfer et al is welcome, although I do think it > is unclear exactly what constitutes a ."solar climate engineering field > experiment". > > The phrase "field test of solar climate engineering" cannot be > unambiguously defined. (Please prove me wrong by providing an unambiguous > definition that can attain consensus.) > > If I paint a one meter square with white paint on my dark asphalt driveway > and measure the reflected sunlight, is that a "solar climate engineering > field test"? > > It would seem that if my intent were to develop technologies that would > ultimately modify climate at global scale, then the answer would likely be > 'yes'. If the intent were simply to test which asphalt paints are easiest > on the eyes, then the answer would likely be "no". > > So, whether this is a "solar geoengineering field test" or not depends not > on my actions, but on my intent. > > But what if someone else is funding this project, and they want to develop > a solar geoengineering system but I just want driveway paints that is > easier on the eyes (or vice versa)? Whose intention counts,that of the > experimental scientist or that of the funder? > > It seems that if we want to have a workable regulatory system, which > governance regime an action falls under should be determinable by a > physical description of the action, and then the governance regime should > take intent of the various parties involved in a project into account when > determining whether expected benefits exceed expected damage in any > particular case. > > Which governance regime applies should depend on a physical description of > a proposed action. A governance regime could then take into consideration > the intents of various parties in deciding whether to approve a particular > project. > > We are asking for trouble if we require that issues of intent to be > resolved in order to determine which governance regime applies. It seems > that for a governance regime to be triggered, the risk of damage from a > project must exceed some *de minimis* level. > > However, Schäfer et al are correct in suggesting that even such* de > minimis* experiments could provoke a negative and ultimately > counter-productive backlash, and therefore they are well-justified in > counseling scientists and engineers to proceed cautiously and prudently > even with such *de minimis *projects, abiding by an informal set of > professional norms. > > > > _______________ > Ken Caldeira > > Carnegie Institution for Science > Dept of Global Ecology > 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA > +1 650 704 7212 [email protected] <javascript:> > http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab @kencaldeira > > > > > On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 3:39 AM, Andrew Lockley > <[email protected]<javascript:> > > wrote: > >> http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n9/full/nclimate1987.html >> >> Field tests of solar climate engineering >> >> Stefan Schäfer, Peter J. Irvine, Anna-Maria Hubert,David Reichwein, Sean >> Low, Harald Stelzer, Achim Maas & Mark G. Lawrence >> >> Nature Climate Change 3, 766 (2013) >> doi:10.1038/nclimate1987 >> Published online 28 August 2013 >> >> The international community has declared climate change a 'common concern >> of humankind'. Therefore, the development of 'climate engineering' (also >> known as geoengineering) techniques that aim to modify the global climate >> requires international cooperation on their governance. (truncated - >> apologies for cheesparing paywall! ) >> >> -- >> 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] <javascript:>. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> >> . >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. >> 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
