One of the favourite fallback dodges of the Fossil Fuelers is to assure people that, even if global warming is a real threat, we'll always be able to find technologies to geo-engineer our way out of trouble. Don't count on it.
At last week's Convention on Biological Diversity at Nagoya, Japan, one thing the delegates managed to agree on was a moratorium on all and any forms of geo-engineering. From Nature News:
The moratorium, expected to be in force by 2012, isn't legally binding, and given the preliminary nature of studies in the area it is unlikely to affect researchers in the near future. But some scientists fear that the CBD's stance will sow confusion and delay at a time when governments and research groups are exploring how geoengineering might feasibly be undertaken if global warming accelerates disastrously.
The CBD agreement coincides with the release of a pair of reports on geoengineering, including a US congressional analysis, published on 29 October, that calls for research across the federal government. In his foreword to the report, Bart Gordon (Democrat, Tennessee), the outgoing chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, highlights the dangers of stifling research and calls for a "rigorous and exhaustive examination" of geoengineering strategies.
"If climate change is one of the greatest long-term threats to biological diversity and human welfare," says Gordon, "then failing to understand all of our options is also a threat." His report singles out the US National Nanotechnology Initiative — a programme that incorporates research at 13 federal agencies — as a possible model for coordinating research.
Critics of the geo-engineering option argue that we have to commit to options before we know they'll work; that geo-engineering only deals with selective symptoms but not the problem itself; and that geo-engineering options may work in some areas but cause irreparable damage elsewhere.
The CBD isn't so much opposed to geo-engineering itself as it is concerned about countries opting to try it before the techniques are properly tested and evaluated.
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TVO's Allan Gregg recently interviewed Gwynne Dyer on his recent book "Crawling from the Wreckage". Dyer seemed to be in favour of geo-engineering as a way of buying us more time to get GHG's under control, but noted that the big problem with geo-engineering is going to be the initial testing and evaluation phase because tests will have to be pretty large scale in order to properly judge effects.
Actually, I didn't agree with much that he said about solar radiation management, except the idea of "cool roofs", i.e., painting roofs and pavements white to reflect solar radiation. Certainly sounds a lot more benign than seeding the atmosphere with poison.
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