https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-72372-9_3

Climate Action: The Feasibility of Climate Intervention on a Global Scale

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   - Kimberly A. Gray
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Abstract

Today’s CO2 emissions are 60% greater than those in 1992 when Rio Earth
Summit participants first agreed to act to prevent climate change. The
failure to curb emissions is not due to a dearth of technical know-how; the
climate intervention toolbox is full of strategies from mitigation to
geoengineering and adaptation. Rather, it is due to a lack of political
will exacerbated by gaps in our understanding of the complexity that reigns
over the earth’s climate system. As we creep ever closer to crossing
planetary thresholds and tipping points, time is running out to take the
requisite actions to avoid global crises. Future efforts to slow, stabilize
or reverse climate change must involve deployment of all possible
interventions. The technical and political feasibility of climate action at
a global scale rests on deep knowledge of how the climate system can be
adjusted by these interdependent tools. Geoengineering entails two broad
classes of endeavors with entirely different aims: carbon dioxide removal
from the atmosphere and albedo modification to reduce the amount of
sunlight hitting the earth’s surface. Many geoengineering options are the
ultimate exercise of the engineering mentality deployed at massive scales
in both time and space to buy time, despite the many actions that could be
employed to actually solve the climate problem. This chapter explains and
analyzes from a science and engineering perspective the multitude of
available climate tools and considers potential challenges, uncertainties,
and unexpected consequences of engineering climate adjustments at a global
scale.

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