RE: [geo] “Climate Engineering – Saving the Sky, Or Playing God? | IASS Potsdam
I think Greg may be onto something here. Doesn't Christianity speak of being stewards of the Earth? The ancient Vedas had many mantras designed to manipulate the weather and climate to benefit society; is climate engineering something new? And let's not forget what our friend Albert Einstein had to say: You can't solve a problem from the same mindset that created it. OK, that could be construed as a jab at climate engineering, but seen from a different angle, perhaps not if climate engineering could be embraced with a different mindset. Last January at the American Meteorology Society Annual Meeting in Austin Texas, the AMS hosted a noontime townhall meeting on Spirituality and the Atmospheric Sciences. I've heard that the AMS is likely to do the same for 2014. The meeting was sponsored by Interfaith Power and Light or IPL (see http://www.interfaithpowerandlight.org/), an interfaith group that raises awareness of global warming by linking it to spiritual principles. Out of this AMS meeting a group was formed where scientists share their knowledge of global warming at religious/spiritual events and how the state of the planet relates to certain principles embraced by one or more religions. This new AMS group has a blog site: sermonsonacloud.blogspot.comhttp://sermonsonacloud.blogspot.com/ . The IPL video concludes with We have a chance to do what few generations have had, and that is to come together with a shared purpose and the joy of working together as a unified Force with a regenerated view of the human purpose on the Earth. David Mitchell Associate Research Professor Desert Research Institute Reno, Nevada, USA From: geoengineering@googlegroups.com [geoengineering@googlegroups.com] on behalf of RAU greg [gh...@sbcglobal.net] Sent: Monday, April 22, 2013 6:15 PM To: andrew.lock...@gmail.com; geoengineering Subject: Re: [geo] “Climate Engineering – Saving the Sky, Or Playing God? | IASS Potsdam Thanks for the kind reminder/invitation, Andrew. Unfortunately, my non-existant travel budget forbids me from attending the event. Perhaps there will be reruns on YouTube. As for the question Are people allowed to put their hand on the climate?, I might remind the participants that is exactly the problem - humans are putting their hands on climate (and ocean chemistry and biology) via their carbon intensive lifestyle. And it doesn't look like those hands and their sinful, earth-threatenting mischief are going away anytime soon. So my vote is that we indeed learn to play (and act) like God, and with our hands and changed behavior save the sky and the rest of the planet. My answer to the workshop's two-part title question then is a resounding yes, barring some other divine/better intervention. Praying for guidance in this immense task (and for forgiveness from future earth inhabitants if we fail) might also be a good idea. Greg From: Andrew Lockley andrew.lock...@gmail.com To: geoengineering geoengineering@googlegroups.com Sent: Mon, April 22, 2013 3:53:06 PM Subject: [geo] “Climate Engineering – Saving the Sky, Or Playing God? | IASS Potsdam http://www.iass-potsdam.de/research-clusters/sustainable-interactions-atmosphere-siwa/news/climate-engineering-saving-sky-or “Climate Engineering – Saving the Sky, Or Playing God? Should humans try to control the climate? Climate Engineering (CE), the purposeful intervention into the global climate system, increasingly raises the hope that the effects of climate change could be compensated with the help of technology. However, these methods, even if they are able to affect global mean temperatures quickly and significantly, also involve large uncertainties and risks that are by far not sufficiently explored. They also raise questions such as: Are people allowed to put their hand on the climate? In the media, climate engineering therefore is sometimes compared to “playing God”. The IASS is convening a workshop on “Religious and Spiritual Perspectives on Climate Engineering” from April 24 to 26, 2013 addressing the following questions: How do different religious and spiritual thought traditions frame the human-environment relationship, and how does climate engineering fit into or challenge this? How do these traditions weigh the potential alleviation of current and future suffering through climate change against the risks and uncertainties of climate engineering? Is it already possible to make conclusive statements about how acceptable or unacceptable climate engineering will be viewed within individual religious and spiritual traditions? The event builds on previous workshops aimed at understanding the more basic relationship between religions and the climate change we are already facing, as well as building on current work being done at the IASS cluster “Sustainable Interactions with the Atmosphere” (SIWA) on understanding
[geo] “Climate Engineering – Saving the Sky, Or Playing God? | IASS Potsdam
http://www.iass-potsdam.de/research-clusters/sustainable-interactions-atmosphere-siwa/news/climate-engineering-saving-sky-or “Climate Engineering – Saving the Sky, Or Playing God? Should humans try to control the climate? Climate Engineering (CE), the purposeful intervention into the global climate system, increasingly raises the hope that the effects of climate change could be compensated with the help of technology. However, these methods, even if they are able to affect global mean temperatures quickly and significantly, also involve large uncertainties and risks that are by far not sufficiently explored. They also raise questions such as: Are people allowed to put their hand on the climate? In the media, climate engineering therefore is sometimes compared to “playing God”. The IASS is convening a workshop on “Religious and Spiritual Perspectives on Climate Engineering” from April 24 to 26, 2013 addressing the following questions: How do different religious and spiritual thought traditions frame the human-environment relationship, and how does climate engineering fit into or challenge this? How do these traditions weigh the potential alleviation of current and future suffering through climate change against the risks and uncertainties of climate engineering? Is it already possible to make conclusive statements about how acceptable or unacceptable climate engineering will be viewed within individual religious and spiritual traditions? The event builds on previous workshops aimed at understanding the more basic relationship between religions and the climate change we are already facing, as well as building on current work being done at the IASS cluster “Sustainable Interactions with the Atmosphere” (SIWA) on understanding the impacts, uncertainties and risks of climate engineering. On the evening of April 25th, there will be a public panel discussion at the IASSon the topic of religion and climate engineering, titled “Climate Engineering: Saving the Sky, or Playing God?” In the focus of the discussion is particularly the question on the relationship between climate engineering, the deliberate manipulation of the global climate system, and religious and spiritual traditions. The discussion deals with the following questions: What is the relationship like between religion and climate engineering? How relevant is climate engineering for religious and spiritual communities? How do some religious and spiritual groups understand the potential of climate engineering I order to compensate the effects of climate change in the context of its risks? The discussion will be chaired by PD Dr. Mark Lawrence (Scientific director at the IASS) and feature:Dieter Gerten (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) Shlomo Shoham (Former Commissioner for Future Generations, Parliament of Israel)Michael Northcott (University of Edinburgh)Venerable Vivekananda (Panditarama Lumbini International Vipassana Meditation Center) Attendance is by appointment only! Please register with Stefan Schäfer ( stefan.schae...@iass-potsdam.de) for the panel discussion. Media representatives please register with me...@iass-potsdam.de. The workshop as well as the panel discussion will be in English. -- 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?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
Re: [geo] “Climate Engineering – Saving the Sky, Or Playing God? | IASS Potsdam
Thanks for the kind reminder/invitation, Andrew. Unfortunately, my non-existant travel budget forbids me from attending the event. Perhaps there will be reruns on YouTube. As for the question Are people allowed to put their hand on the climate?, I might remind the participants that is exactly the problem - humans are putting their hands on climate (and ocean chemistry and biology) via their carbon intensive lifestyle. And it doesn't look like those hands and their sinful, earth-threatenting mischief are going away anytime soon. So my vote is that we indeed learn to play (and act) like God, and with our hands and changed behavior save the sky and the rest of the planet. My answer to the workshop's two-part title question then is a resounding yes, barring some other divine/better intervention. Praying for guidance in this immense task (and for forgiveness from future earth inhabitants if we fail) might also be a good idea. Greg From: Andrew Lockley andrew.lock...@gmail.com To: geoengineering geoengineering@googlegroups.com Sent: Mon, April 22, 2013 3:53:06 PM Subject: [geo] “Climate Engineering – Saving the Sky, Or Playing God? | IASS Potsdam http://www.iass-potsdam.de/research-clusters/sustainable-interactions-atmosphere-siwa/news/climate-engineering-saving-sky-or “Climate Engineering – Saving the Sky, Or Playing God? Should humans try to control the climate? Climate Engineering (CE), the purposeful intervention into the global climate system, increasingly raises the hope that the effects of climate change could be compensated with the help of technology. However, these methods, even if they are able to affect global mean temperatures quickly and significantly, also involve large uncertainties and risks that are by far not sufficiently explored. They also raise questions such as: Are people allowed to put their hand on the climate? In the media, climate engineering therefore is sometimes compared to “playing God”. The IASS is convening a workshop on “Religious and Spiritual Perspectives on Climate Engineering” from April 24 to 26, 2013 addressing the following questions: How do different religious and spiritual thought traditions frame the human-environment relationship, and how does climate engineering fit into or challenge this? How do these traditions weigh the potential alleviation of current and future suffering through climate change against the risks and uncertainties of climate engineering? Is it already possible to make conclusive statements about how acceptable or unacceptable climate engineering will be viewed within individual religious and spiritual traditions? The event builds on previous workshops aimed at understanding the more basic relationship between religions and the climate change we are already facing, as well as building on current work being done at the IASS cluster “Sustainable Interactions with the Atmosphere” (SIWA) on understanding the impacts, uncertainties and risks of climate engineering. On the evening of April 25th, there will be a public panel discussion at the IASSon the topic of religion and climate engineering, titled “Climate Engineering: Saving the Sky, or Playing God?” In the focus of the discussion is particularly the question on the relationship between climate engineering, the deliberate manipulation of the global climate system, and religious and spiritual traditions. The discussion deals with the following questions: What is the relationship like between religion and climate engineering? How relevant is climate engineering for religious and spiritual communities? How do some religious and spiritual groups understand the potential of climate engineering I order to compensate the effects of climate change in the context of its risks? The discussion will be chaired by PD Dr. Mark Lawrence (Scientific director at the IASS) and feature:Dieter Gerten (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) Shlomo Shoham (Former Commissioner for Future Generations, Parliament of Israel)Michael Northcott (University of Edinburgh)Venerable Vivekananda (Panditarama Lumbini International Vipassana Meditation Center) Attendance is by appointment only! Please register with Stefan Schäfer (stefan.schae...@iass-potsdam.de) for the panel discussion. Media representatives please register with me...@iass-potsdam.de. The workshop as well as the panel discussion will be in English. -- 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?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
