Sep 23, 2020 05:30 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 23, 2020 09:12 PM by C C.)
OPINION: Geoengineering is the only solution to our climate calamities
https://www.wired.com/story/geoengineeri...alamities/
EXCERPTS: If global warming were an extraterrestrial adversary, it would not have to fear a diplomatically unified Earth. The past decade of climate summits [...] have only nudged us towards the limp goal of business as usual until 2050. ... Even in the best of times, collective action doesn’t come naturally. ... If the Industrial Revolution and borderless capitalism are the forces that have brought us to this environmental apotheosis, then it will have to be geoengineering moon shots and scientific collaboration that buy us time to reverse the damage.
Geoengineering proposals generally fall into two categories: removing carbon from the atmosphere, or shielding Earth from solar radiation. The most ambitious proposal for carbon removal involves fertilizing the ocean with iron sulfate and other nutrients to stimulate algae growth that could potentially revitalize the marine food chain while also absorbing atmospheric carbon. In terms of slowing global warming, injecting sulphur dioxide aerosol particles in the atmosphere would reflect sunlight and cool temperatures across the globe.
One might recoil at such audacious plans to intentionally alter the geophysical environment, yet that is precisely what we have unintentionally been doing for the past century. At least this time we can direct our efforts in the right direction. As Stewart Brand memorably wrote in the first edition of the Whole Earth Catalog in 1968, “We are as gods and might as well get good at it.”
We have a long way to go before we gain divine mastery over nature. More than a dozen iron fertilization experiments have been undertaken in the past two decades, but only two have resulted in any carbon being absorbed into the deep sea. Despite this limited success, in 2008 the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity imposed a moratorium on such efforts. Solar geoengineering lags even further behind... (MORE - details)
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Cynical Sindee: Now "HowStuffWorks" is highlighting GeoE this week. The technocratic "deep state" must have commissioned a promotional information blitz from a variety of different sources.
Why Solar Geoengineering Should be Part of the Climate Crisis Solution
https://science.howstuffworks.com/enviro...eering.htm
Warming Temperatures are Driving Arctic Greening
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/202...c-greening
INTRO: As Arctic summers warm, Earth’s northern landscapes are changing. Using satellite images to track global tundra ecosystems over decades, a new study found the region has become greener, as warmer air and soil temperatures lead to increased plant growth. “The Arctic tundra is one of the coldest biomes on Earth, and it’s also one of the most rapidly warming,” said Logan Berner, a global change ecologist with Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, who led the recent research. “This Arctic greening we see is really a bellwether of global climatic change – it’s a biome-scale response to rising air temperatures.”
Data from NASA/USGS Landsat satellites show that during 1985-2016, vegetation in the arctic tundra of Canada, Alaska and western Eurasia showed a 38% increase in greenness – representing plants growing more, becoming denser, and/or shrubs encroaching on typical tundra grasses and moss. The study, published this week in Nature Communications, is the first to measure vegetation changes spanning the entire Arctic tundra, from Alaska and Canada to Siberia, using satellite data from Landsat, a joint mission of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Other studies have used the satellite data to look at smaller regions... (MORE - details)
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/htzq2QbTKtw
https://www.wired.com/story/geoengineeri...alamities/
EXCERPTS: If global warming were an extraterrestrial adversary, it would not have to fear a diplomatically unified Earth. The past decade of climate summits [...] have only nudged us towards the limp goal of business as usual until 2050. ... Even in the best of times, collective action doesn’t come naturally. ... If the Industrial Revolution and borderless capitalism are the forces that have brought us to this environmental apotheosis, then it will have to be geoengineering moon shots and scientific collaboration that buy us time to reverse the damage.
Geoengineering proposals generally fall into two categories: removing carbon from the atmosphere, or shielding Earth from solar radiation. The most ambitious proposal for carbon removal involves fertilizing the ocean with iron sulfate and other nutrients to stimulate algae growth that could potentially revitalize the marine food chain while also absorbing atmospheric carbon. In terms of slowing global warming, injecting sulphur dioxide aerosol particles in the atmosphere would reflect sunlight and cool temperatures across the globe.
One might recoil at such audacious plans to intentionally alter the geophysical environment, yet that is precisely what we have unintentionally been doing for the past century. At least this time we can direct our efforts in the right direction. As Stewart Brand memorably wrote in the first edition of the Whole Earth Catalog in 1968, “We are as gods and might as well get good at it.”
We have a long way to go before we gain divine mastery over nature. More than a dozen iron fertilization experiments have been undertaken in the past two decades, but only two have resulted in any carbon being absorbed into the deep sea. Despite this limited success, in 2008 the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity imposed a moratorium on such efforts. Solar geoengineering lags even further behind... (MORE - details)
- - -
Cynical Sindee: Now "HowStuffWorks" is highlighting GeoE this week. The technocratic "deep state" must have commissioned a promotional information blitz from a variety of different sources.
Why Solar Geoengineering Should be Part of the Climate Crisis Solution
https://science.howstuffworks.com/enviro...eering.htm
Warming Temperatures are Driving Arctic Greening
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/202...c-greening
INTRO: As Arctic summers warm, Earth’s northern landscapes are changing. Using satellite images to track global tundra ecosystems over decades, a new study found the region has become greener, as warmer air and soil temperatures lead to increased plant growth. “The Arctic tundra is one of the coldest biomes on Earth, and it’s also one of the most rapidly warming,” said Logan Berner, a global change ecologist with Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, who led the recent research. “This Arctic greening we see is really a bellwether of global climatic change – it’s a biome-scale response to rising air temperatures.”
Data from NASA/USGS Landsat satellites show that during 1985-2016, vegetation in the arctic tundra of Canada, Alaska and western Eurasia showed a 38% increase in greenness – representing plants growing more, becoming denser, and/or shrubs encroaching on typical tundra grasses and moss. The study, published this week in Nature Communications, is the first to measure vegetation changes spanning the entire Arctic tundra, from Alaska and Canada to Siberia, using satellite data from Landsat, a joint mission of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Other studies have used the satellite data to look at smaller regions... (MORE - details)
