Dear All,
I wrote quote #2 in 2006 after attending the NASA-Ames meeting, when
the field of geoengineering was in a distinct "technological fix"
mode. I was appalled by the tone of the discourse I had just
experienced and wanted to alert the community of historians,
humanists, and policy makers to the outrageous claims for climate
control circulating at the time.
I wrote this as a prelude, a "hook" if you will, to a much longer
history of intervention. The community interested in these ideas is
much larger and somewhat more diverse now, and I am encouraged to see
more humanists making contributions, but still, most every week, I
read of rather outrageous notions for "controlling" Earth's climate.
Jim Fleming
- - - - -
James R. Fleming
Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, Colby
College
Series editor, Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology
/Inventing Atmospheric Science/ (MIT Press, 2016),
https://mitpress.mit.edu/atmospheric-science
Profile: http://www.colby.edu/directory/profile/jfleming/
"Everything is unprecedented if you don't study history."
On Thu, Feb 4, 2016 at 3:13 AM, Emily <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi all
Useful looking list of books.
2 things jump out:
1. Lack of mention in the blurbs that IPCC relies upon CDR to have
a chance of staying below 2degC (noting we need the limit to be
lower still). Framing CDR as a back up plan, seems unjustifiable,
as it is critical to the 'plan A' as I read it.
2. The blurb about 'Fixing the Sky' includes this phrase:
"...Forget cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, some scientists
argue. Instead, bounce sunlight back into space..." I wonder
whether scientists really do say that at all. I don't see this as
a real reflection of the discorse.
Given these two thoughts, and the number of books available -
making it tough to read them all, and my feeling that some of the
books on offer clearly have an agenda, does anyone have a view
which of these books gives a fairly balanced discussion, also
accepting the IPCC view of the need for CDR and one which avoids
slandering scientists generically?
Thanks,
Emily
Sent from my BlackBerry®
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From: * Andrew Lockley <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>
*Sender: * [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Date: *Wed, 3 Feb 2016 14:29:29 +0000
*To: *geoengineering<[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>
*ReplyTo: * [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject: *[geo] Bookshelf: Engineering the atmosphere - Yale
Climate Connections
http://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2016/02/bookshelf-engineering-the-atmosphere/
Bookshelf: Engineering the Atmosphere
By Michael Svoboda on Feb 2, 2016
This month's compendium of timely books address the multifaceted
technological, political, social, economic, and ethical issues
surrounding geoengineering, humanity's 'Plan B' (or X?) for
combating excessive global warming.
Geoengineering. For some it’s a prudent insurance policy to
protect against what-if scenarios if societies’ efforts to combat
excessive global warming fails to manage what modern societies
themselves have created. For many others, it’s a last-resort,
pull-out-all-the-stops Hail Mary pass fraught with its own
problems and unknowns.
This month’s climate bookshelf feature is again compiled by
bibliophile Michael Svoboda of George Washington University, a
former book-store owner and regular contributor. Descriptions are
drawn from the publishers’ copy.
How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to
Fix Earth’s Climate, by Jeff Goodell (Mariner Books, 2010; 276
pages, $14.95 paperback)
Climate discussions often focus on potential impacts over a long
period of time – several decades, a century even. But change could
also happen much more suddenly. What if we had a real climate
emergency – how could we cool the planet in a hurry? This question
has led a group of scientists to pursue extreme solutions: huge
contraptions that would suck CO2 from the air, machines that
brighten clouds and deflect sunlight away from the earth, even
artificial volcanoes that spray heat-reflecting particles into the
atmosphere. This is the radical and controversial world of
geoengineering. In How to Cool the Planet, Jeff Goodell explores
the scientific, political, and moral aspects of geoengineering. .
. . There are certainly risks, but Goodell persuades us that
geoengineering may be our last best hope, a Plan B for the
environment.
Hack the Planet: Science’s Best Hope – or Worst Nightmare – for
Averting Climate Catastrophe, by Eli Kintisch (Wiley, 2010; 280
pages, $25.95)
Scientists are developing geoengineering techniques for worst-case
scenarios. . . . [In Hack the Planet, Science magazine reporter]
Kintisch outlines four: collapsing ice sheets, megadroughts, a
catastrophic methane release, and slowing of the global ocean
conveyor belt. As incredible and outlandish as many
[geoengineering] plans may seem, could they soon become our only
hope for avoiding calamity? Or will the plans of brilliant and
well-intentioned scientists cause unforeseeable disasters? And
does the advent of geoengineering mean that humanity has failed in
its role as steward of the planet – or taken on a new
responsibility? Kintisch’s investigation of the [possibilities and
dangers of geoengineering] is required reading as the debate over
global warming shifts to whether humanity should Hack the Planet.
Geo-Engineering Climate Change: Environmental Necessity or
Pandora’s Box?, Edited by Brian Launder and J. Michael T. Thompson
(Cambridge University Press, 2010; 332 pages, $69.60 (at Amazon))
This book is the first to present a detailed and critical
appraisal of the geo-scale engineering interventions that have
been proposed as potential measures to counter the devastation of
run-away global warming. Early chapters set the scene with a
discussion of projections of future CO2 emissions and techniques
for predicting climate tipping points. Subsequent chapters then
review proposals to limit CO2 concentrations through improved
energy technologies, removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, and
stimulated uptake by the oceans. Schemes for solar radiation
management involving the reflection of sunlight back into space
and using artificially brightened clouds and stratospheric
aerosols are also assessed. Pros and cons of the various schemes
are thoroughly examined – throwing light on the passionate public
debate about their safety.
Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate
Control, by James Rodger Fleming (Columbia University Press, 2010;
344 pages, $24.95 paperback)
As alarm over global warming spreads, a radical idea is gaining
momentum. Forget cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, some scientists
argue. Instead, bounce sunlight back into space by pumping
reflective nanoparticles into the atmosphere. Launch mirrors into
orbit around the Earth. Make clouds thicker and brighter to create
a “planetary thermostat.” . . . For more than a century,
scientists, soldiers, and charlatans have tried to manipulate
weather and climate, and like them, today’s climate engineers
wildly exaggerate what is possible. Scarcely considering the
political, military, and ethical implications of managing the
world’s climate, these individuals hatch schemes with potential
consequences that far outweigh anything their predecessors might
have faced. [In Fixing the Sky], James Rodger Fleming traces the
tragicomic history of the rainmakers, rain fakers, weather
warriors, and climate engineers who have been both full of ideas
and full of themselves. . . . [He] speaks to anyone who has a
stake in sustaining the planet.
Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives, Legal
Issues, and Governance Frameworks, Edited by Wil C. Burns and
Andrew L. Strauss (Cambridge University Press, 2013; 328 pages,
$35.99)
The international community is not taking the action necessary to
avert dangerous increases in greenhouse gases. Facing a
potentially bleak future, the question that confronts humanity is
whether the best of bad alternatives may be to counter global
warming through human-engineered climate interventions. In this
book, eleven prominent authorities on climate change consider the
legal, policy, and philosophical issues presented by geoengineering.
Earthmasters: The Dawn of the Age of Climate Engineering, by Clive
Hamilton (Yale University Press, 2013; 264 pages, $20.00 paperback)
International efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have all
failed, and before the end of the century Earth is projected to be
warmer than it has been for 15 million years. The question “can
the crisis be avoided?” has been superseded by a more frightening
one, “what can be done to prevent the devastation of the living
world?” . . . [In Earthmasters, Clive Hamilton] lays out the
arguments for and against climate engineering, and reveals the
extent of vested interests linking researchers, venture
capitalists, and corporations. He then examines what it means for
human beings to be making plans to control the planet’s
atmosphere, probes the uneasiness we feel with the notion of
exercising technological mastery over nature, and challenges the
ways we think about ourselves and our place in the natural world.
A Case for Climate Engineering, by David Keith (Boston Review
Books / The MIT Press, 2013; 112 pages, $16.95)
A leading scientist long concerned about climate change, Keith . .
. argues that, after decades during which very little progress has
been made in reducing carbon emissions, we must put [climate
engineering] on the table and consider it responsibly. That
doesn’t mean we will deploy it, and it doesn’t mean that we can
abandon efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But we must
understand fully what research needs to be done and how the
technology might be designed and used. [He] provides a clear and
accessible overview of what the costs and risks might be, and how
climate engineering might fit into a larger program for managing
climate change.
Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management,
Edited by Christopher J. Preston (Lexington Books, 2013; 278
pages, $36.99 paperback)
Climate engineering (also known as geoengineering) has recently
experienced a surge of interest given the growing likelihood that
the global community will fail to limit the temperature increases
associated with greenhouse gases to safe levels. . . . One
particular form, solar radiation management (SRM), is known to be
relatively cheap and capable of bringing down global temperatures
very rapidly. However, the complexity of the climate system
creates considerable uncertainty about the precise nature of SRM’s
effects in different regions. The ethical issues raised by the
prospect of SRM are both complex and thorny. . . . A sustained and
scholarly treatment of [these issues] is necessary before it will
be possible to make fair and just decisions about whether (or how)
to proceed. This book, including essays by 13 experts in the
ethics of geoengineering, [begins that process].
Geoengineering of the Climate System, Edited by R. M. Harrison et
al (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2014; 270 pp. $108.00 (Amazon))
Geoengineering of the Climate System presents an overview of the
technologies currently being considered as large scale solutions
to climate change, and considers some of the possible benefits and
disadvantages of each. [With] invited contributions . . . by many
of the leading experts on these technologies, the volume provides
a comprehensive overview of both carbon dioxide reduction and
solar radiation management methods [and then reviews the]
important ethical and governance issues [to which they give rise].
Written with active researchers, postgraduate students and
policy-makers in mind, this latest addition to the Issues in
Environmental Science & Technology series presents a balanced and
informed view of this important field of research and is an
essential addition to any environmental science library.
Can Science Fix Climate Change: A Case Against Climate
Engineering, by Mike Hulme (Wiley/Polity, 2014; 144 pages, $12.95)
Climate change seems to be an insurmountable problem. Political
solutions have so far had little impact. Some scientists are now
advocating the so-called “Plan B”, a more direct way of reducing
the rate of future warming by reflecting more sunlight back to
space, creating a thermostat in the sky. . . . Drawing upon a
distinguished career studying the science, politics and ethics of
climate change, Mike Hulme shows why using science to fix the
global climate is undesirable, ungovern-able and unattainable.
Science and technology should instead serve the more pragmatic
goals of increasing societal resilience to weather risks,
improving regional air quality and driving forward an energy
technology transition. Seeking to reset the planet’s thermostat is
not the answer.
Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide Removal and Reliable
Sequestration, by Committee on Geoengineering the Climate
(National Academies Press, 2015; 154 pages, $49.95 paper) A PDF
for this book can be downloaded for free from this webpage.
As one of a two-book report, Climate Intervention: Carbon Dioxide
Removal and Reliable Sequestration introduces possible CDR
approaches and then discusses them in depth. Land management
practices, such as low-till agriculture, reforestation and
afforestation, ocean iron fertilization, and land-and-ocean-based
accelerated weathering, could amplify the rates of processes that
are already occurring as part of the natural carbon cycle. Other
CDR approaches, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and
sequestration, direct air capture and sequestration, and
traditional carbon capture and sequestration, seek to capture CO2
from the atmosphere and dispose of it by pumping it underground at
high pressure. This book looks at the pros and cons of these
options and estimates possible rates of removal and total amounts
that might be removed.
Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth, by
Committee on Geoengineering the Climate (National Academies Press,
2015; 154 pages, $49.95 paper) A PDF for this book can be
downloaded for free from this webpage.
As one of a two-book report, this volume discusses albedo
modification – changing the fraction of incoming solar radiation
that reaches the surface. This approach would deliberately modify
the energy budget of Earth to produce a cooling designed to
compensate for some of the effects of warming associated with
greenhouse gas increases. The prospect of large-scale albedo
modifcation raises political and governance issues at national and
global levels, as well as ethical concerns. Climate Intervention:
Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth discusses [these issues and
concerns]. In the spirit of transparency [critical for these
discussions, this report] was based on peer-reviewed literature
and the judgments of the authoring committee; no new research was
done as part of this study and all data and information used are
from entirely open sources. . . . [Leaders should understand] the
consequences of albedo modification approaches before they face a
decision whether or not to use them.
Experiment Earth: Responsible Innovation in Geoengineering, by
Jack Stilgoe (Routledge/Earthscan, 2015; 222 pages, $145.00)
Experiments in geoengineering – intentionally manipulating the
Earth’s climate to reduce global warming – have become the focus
of a vital debate about responsible science and innovation.
Drawing on three years of sociological research working with
scientists on one of the world’s first major geoengineering
projects, this book examines the politics of experimentation.
Geoengineering provides a test case for rethinking the
responsibilities of scientists and asking how science can take
better care of the futures that it helps bring about. This book
gives students, researchers and the general reader interested in
the place of science in contemporary society a compelling
framework for future thinking and discussion.
The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World, by
Oliver Morton (Princeton University Press, 2015; 440 pages, $29.95)
The Planet Remade explores the history, politics, and cutting-edge
science of geoengineering. Morton weighs both the promise and
perils of these controversial strategies and puts them in the
broadest possible context. The past century’s changes to the
planet – to the clouds and the soils, to the winds and the seas,
to the great cycles of nitrogen and carbon – have been far more
profound than most of us realize. Appreciating those changes
clarifies not just the scale of what needs to be done about global
warming, but also our relationship to nature. . . . [Morton]
addresses the deep fear that comes with seeing humans as a force
of nature, and asks what it might mean . . . to try and use that
force . . . to meet the challenge of climate change.
Systems Thinking for Geoengineering Policy: How to Reduce the
Threat of Dangerous Climate Change by Embracing Uncertainty and
Failure, by Robert Chris (Routledge / Earthscan, 2015; 212 pages,
$145.00)
Systems Thinking for Geoengineering Policy is the first book to
[discuss] geoengineering in terms of complex adaptive systems
theory and to argue for the theoretical imperative of adaptive
management . . . for confronting the inescapable uncertainty and
surprise that characterize potential climate futures. The book
illustrates how a shift from the conventional Enlightenment
paradigm of linear reductionist thinking, in favor of systems
thinking, would promote robust policies [for] the widest range of
plausible futures . . . and could also unlock the policy paralysis
caused by making [agreement on] long term predictions a prior
condition for policy formulation. It also offers some
systems-driven reflections on a global governance network for
geoengineering.
FILED UNDER: book reviews, climate
engineering,geoengineering, Michael Svoboda
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