In this context it's interesting to note that 1) a freighter just completed the first Asia-to-Europe trip, and 2) Russia a few days ago announced it is starting the first-ever naval patrols along its arctic coast. It is now a shipping lane for the first time, a development that I assume is profoundly startling to Russians.
Can anyone on this list comment on Yuri Izrael and his work? I wonder if he is hoping to re-freeze that new coastal route and nip arctic economic development in the bud. Or on Russian GE research and POV generally? PS: cage-match ETC vs.Putin: bets on who comes out on top? On Thursday, September 19, 2013 12:23:09 PM UTC-6, andrewjlockley wrote: > > Russia urges UN climate report to include geoengineering The Russian > government is asking for 'planet hacking' to be included in the climate > science report, leaked documents show > > Martin Lukacs > > Suzanne Goldenberg > > Adam Vaughan > > Thu 19 September 2013 > > Russia is pushing for next week's landmark UN climate science report to > include support for controversial technologies to geoengineer the planet's > climate, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. > > As climate scientists prepare to gather for the Intergovernmental Panel on > Climate Change (IPCC) in Stockholm to present the most authoritative state > of climate science to date, it has emerged the Russian government is asking > for "planet hacking" to be included in the report. The IPCC has not > included geoengineering in its major assessments before. > > The documents seen by the Guardian show Russia is asking for a conclusion > of the report to say that a "possible solution of this [climate change] > problem can be found in using of [sic] geoengineering methods to stabilise > current climate." Russia also highlighted that its scientists are > developing geoengineering technologies. > > Geoengineering aims to cool the Earth by methods including spraying > sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight, or fertilising > the oceans with iron to create carbon-capturing algal blooms. > > Such ideas are increasingly being discussed by western scientists and > governments as a plan B for addressing climate change, with the new > astronomer royal, Professor Sir Martin Rees, calling last week for such > methods to buy time to develop sources of clean energy. But the techniques > have been criticised as a way for powerful, industrialised nations to dodge > their commitments to reduce carbon emissions. > > Some modelling has shown geoengineering could be effective at reducing the > Earth's temperature, but manipulation of sensitive planetary systems in one > area of the world could also result in drastic unintended consequences > globally, such as radically disrupted rainfall. > > Responding to efforts to discredit the climate science with a spoiler > campaign in advance of the report, the chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra K > Pachauri, said he was confident the high standards of the science in the > report would make the case for climate action. He said: "There will be > enough information provided so that rational people across the globe will > see that action is needed on climate change." > > The Russian scientist Yuri Izrael, who has participated in IPCC > geoengineering expert groups and was an adviser to the former Russian > president Vladimir Putin, conducted an experiment in 2009 that sprayed > particles from a helicopter to assess how much sunlight was blocked by the > aerosol plume. A planned test in Britain that would have used a balloon > attached to a 1km hose to develop equipment for spraying was prevented > after a public outcry. > > Observers have suggested that Russia's admission that it is developing > geoengineering may put it in violation of the UN moratorium on > geoengineering projects established at the Biodiversity Convention in 2010 > and should be discussed on an emergency basis when the convention's > scientific subcommittee meets in Montreal in October. > > Civil society organisations have previously raised concerns that expert > groups writing geoengineering sections of the IPCC report were dominated by > US, UK and Canadian geoengineering advocates who have called for public > funding of large-scale experiments or who have taken out commercial patents > on geoenginering technologies. One scientist who served as a group > co-chair, David Keith of Harvard University, runs a private geoengineering > company, has planned tests in New Mexico, and is publicising a new book > called The Case for Climate Engineering. > > Nearly 160 civil society, indigenous and environmental organisations > signed a letter in 2011 urging caution and calling on the IPCC not to > legitimise geoengineering. > > Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America director of the technology watchdog ETC > Group, said: "We have been warning that a few geoengineering advocates have > been trying to hijack the IPCC for their agenda. We are now seeing a > deliberate attempt to exploit the high profile and credibility of this body > in order to create more mainstream support for extreme climate engineering. > The public and policymakers need to be on guard against being steamrollered > into accepting dangerous and immoral interventions with our planet, which > are a false solution to climate change. Geoengineering should be banned by > the UN general assembly." > > Matthew Watson, a senior lecturer at the University of Bristol's Earth > sciences department and one of the team behind the cancelled balloon > project, said: "In general ought the IPCC to be thinking about > geoengineering? Yes. But do I want to see unilateralism or regionalism > affect the debate? Certainly not. The people who don't like geoengineering > will suggest the IPCC is a method for normalising it." > > He added: "The IPCC has to be very careful about how it handles this > [geoengineering] because it is clearly a very significant output that > people are very mindful of." > > While the IPCC is intended to be a scientific advisory panel, government > delegates have been reviewing the summary report and make final decisions > about it in Stockholm at the end of the month. > > Sweden, Norway and Germany expressed more scepticism about geoengineering > and asked that the report underline its potential dangers. > > "The information on geoengineering options is too optimistic as it does > not appropriately reflect the current lack of knowledge or the high risks > associated with such methods," noted the German government. > > Geoengineering is expected to play a much larger role in the next IPCC > reports coming out in 2014. Observers were surprised that it had turned up > in this first major report – meant to assess physical science rather than > mitigation strategies. > > Russia's climate negotiators did not respond to a request for comment. > > © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All > rights reserved. > -- 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.
