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Benno Hansen

British coal industry flack pushes geo-engineering "ploy" to give politicians... - 0 views

  • The geo-engineering option provides the needed viable reason to do nothing about AGW now….
  • “The ‘geo-engineering’ approaches considered so far appear to be afflicted with some combination of high costs, low leverage, and a high likelihood of serious side effects.“
  • they simply omit the costs of many of the potential negative aspects of producing a stratospheric cloud to block out sunlight or cloud brightening
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  • That the second author works for the American Enterprise Institute, a lobbying group that has been a leading global warming denier, is not surprising, except that now they are in favor of a solution to a problem they have claimed for years does not exist.
  • The American Meteorological Society (AMS) has just issued a policy statement on geoengineering, which urges cautious consideration, more research, and appropriate restrictions.
  • ignore the effects of ocean acidification from continued CO2 emissions
  • do not even mention several potential negative effects of SRM, including getting rid of blue skies, huge reductions in solar power from systems using direct solar radiation, or ruining terrestrial optical astronomy
  • cloud brightening would mainly cool the oceans and not affect land temperature much
  • cloud brightening over the South Atlantic would produce severe drought over the Amazon, destroying the tropical forest
  • Whose hand would be on the global thermostat? Who would trust military aircraft or a multi-national geoengineering company to have the interests of the people of the planet foremost?
  • threat to the water supply for agriculture and other human uses
  • benefits from SRM, including increased plant productivity and an enhanced CO2 sink from vegetation that grows more when subject to diffuse radiation
  • The real consensus, as expressed at the National Academy conference and in the AMS statement, is that mitigation needs to be our first and overwhelming response to global warming, and that whether geoengineering can even be considered as an emergency measure in the future should climate change become too dangerous is not now known.
Benno Hansen

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Climate fixes 'pose drought risk' - 0 views

  • "if geo-engineering studies focus too heavily on warming, critical risks associated with such possible "cures" will not be evaluated appropriately"
  • climate change is about much more than changes in temperature. So using temperature alone to monitor the effects of geo-engineering could be dangerous.
  • current climate models tend to underestimate the effects on precipitation of both greenhouse gases and of volcanic eruptions
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  • The article warns that geo-engineering of this type, combined with the effects of global warming could produce reductions in regional rainfall that could rival those of past major droughts, leading to winners and losers among the human population and possible conflicts over water.
    • Benno Hansen
       
      ecowar
  • "optimism about a geo-engineered 'easy way out' should be tempered by examination of currently observed climate changes."
    • Benno Hansen
       
      hvorfor skulle geoengineering ikke have uforudsete bivirkninger når klimaforandringerne i sig selv er en "uforudset" (overraskende stor) bivirkning ved afbrænding af fossile brændstoffer?
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