[geo] Visiting lecturer discusses moral quandaries in geoengineering | The Lawrentian
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 Geoengineering: Ethically Challenged, Politically Impossible? 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-Nissen's 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 irrelevant take home message. He said,The environment is a bathtub. 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, His examples are very relevant to us and it is helpful to understand a lot more. 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: Are we doing anything wrong by not doing anything about [global warming]? -- 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.
Re: [geo] If the world had a giant thermostat, who would control the weather?
From the article: “The findings from GeoMIP and earlier studies have caught the attention of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement and its Climate Centre. Suarez and his colleagues are urging other humanitarian groups to begin preparing for the fallout from geoengineering, including situations in which underdeveloped nations are unable to compensate for resulting weather changes and have to rely on humanitarian organizations for assistance. GR - Does this mean that the RC is also preparing for fallout from failure to stabilize if not reduce GHG's, including situations in which underdeveloped nations are unable to compensate for resulting weather changes and have to rely on humanitarian organizations for assistance? And might this be a larger task that dealing with the impacts of GE? Then this little factoid caught my eye, The National Academy of Sciences is midway through an assessment of geoengineering, funded in part by the Central Intelligence Agency. “There are going to be winners and losers if SRM technologies were ever to be used,” says Alex Hanafi, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “So that creates a real risk of international conflict, where you have some countries saying … ‘I suffered more, so I need some kind of compensation’ or ‘You need to stop doing SRM.’”GR - How about there are going to be winners and losers if GHG's continue to rise and SRM technologies are not used? Also, isn't there a real risk of international conflict, where you have some countries saying …'I suffered more, so I need some kind of compensation’ or ‘You need to stop emitting GHG's'? Lastly, what the heck is the CIA doing in bed with the NAS re GE??? Greg From: Alan Robock rob...@envsci.rutgers.edu To: Geoengineering Geoengineering@googlegroups.com Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 12:22 PM Subject: [geo] If the world had a giant thermostat, who would control the weather? Article about geoengineering quotes me and others on Al Jazeera America by Victoria Schlesinger, “If the world had a giant thermostat, who would control the weather?” http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/21/if-the-world-hadagiantthermostatwhowouldcontroltheweather.html -- Alan Robock Alan Robock, Distinguished Professor Editor, Reviews of Geophysics Director, Meteorology Undergraduate Program Department of Environmental Sciences Phone: +1-848-932-5751 Rutgers University Fax: +1-732-932-8644 14 College Farm Road E-mail: rob...@envsci.rutgers.edu New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551 USA http://envsci.rutgers.edu/~robock http://twitter.com/AlanRobock Watch my 18 min TEDx talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsrEk1oZ-54 -- 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. -- 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.
