And apparently no mention at all of the adverse impacts that SRM would offset‹offsets so serious that there is global agreement (if not yet sufficient action) that the world must totally give up fossil fuels to avoid, that are viewed as potentially having nonlinearities and irreversibilities such as loss of tens of percent of global biodiversity, sea level rise of many meters, and more. Much less any discussion of the various potential forms of geoengineering and adaptive application of it, perhaps using SRM to slow in near-term and CDR drawdown of CO2 as an exit strategy, etc.
Mike MacCracken On 2/21/14 9:26 PM, "Andrew Lockley" <andrew.lock...@gmail.com> wrote: > http://www.lawrentian.com/archives/1002706 > > Visiting lecturer discusses moral quandaries in geoengineering > > POSTED ON FEBRUARY 21, 2014 BY XUE YAN > > On Tuesday, Feb. 18, Bjornar Egede-Nissen, from the department of political > science at the University of Western Ontario, gave a lecture titled > ³Geoengineering: Ethically Challenged, Politically Impossible?² in Steitz Hall > of Science.The lecture covered a brief introduction to geoengineering, its > ethical challenges and the political difficulties faced by > geoengineering.According to the lecture, geoengineering is defined as the > deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment to counteract > anthropogenic climate change. Solar radiation management (SRM), a theoretical > type of geoengineering which aims to reflect sunlight back into space to > reduce global warming, was the main topic of Egede-Nissen¹s > lecture.Egede-Nissen believed that there are some limitations on SRM. He said > that though SRM is able to block the sunlight, the CO2 is still left on the > earth, so SRM only treats the symptoms, not the causes of global warming. In > order to gradually get rid of the CO2, people have to continue to use SRM, and > due to the slow negative emission, it will take a very long time to achieve. > This is another limitation, he said.Egede-Nissen also said that once the use > of SRM begins, people would face the exit problem of SRM. Also, it is > extremely hard to predict the effects of the SRM on the climate, so there is > also unpredictable risk to using SRM.When considering SRM, Egede-Nissen said > we must also think about the ethical challenges.He admitted that there are > some justifications of doing SRM research, including the cost-benefit > analysis, the value of scientific research and the emergency options for SRM > research. According to Egede-Nissen, the SRM can be comparatively cheap, but > the long time-frame required and the side effects of doing SRM research can be > cause for reconsideration.At the end of the talk, Egede-Nissen said he wanted > to leave an ³irrelevant² take home message. He said,³The environment is a > bathtub.² He explained that if we put the carbon in the earth, it would drain > out of the atmosphere in a much slower rate. He believed that it is a very > common misunderstanding to think that stopping emissions today will improve > the situation, because the past emissions will remain there for hundreds of > years.Freshman Sara Zaccarine said that it was interesting that his talk aimed > at raising questions rather than answering them. She said, ³His examples are > very relevant to us and it is helpful to understand a lot more.² She also > likes that he brought the large-scale issue down to more specific > points.Sophomore Lena Bixby thinks the ethical issues are important. People > have the technology, but we are not doing anything about the problem. She said > it is like a moral test: ³Are we doing anything wrong by not doing anything > about [global warming]?² -- 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 geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
