Techno-Fixes For A Warming Climate

By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, January 27, 2009.

Cyanobacteria bloom

Global temperatures are on the rise and weather patterns changing more quickly than many leading climatologists had anticipated. The international community can't agree on how to legislate carbon, and has failed to curb emissions.

A few years ago, the concept of geo-engineering - deliberately manipulating the climate to counter the effects of climate change - received little traction in the scientific community; it was too risky, politically unacceptable, even downright loopy. Today, a growing number of scientists are calling for a Plan "B", not as an alternative to curbing our emissions, but as a safety net for disaster.

Catherine Brahic is an environmental reporter for the New Scientist, where she's been covering geo-engineering schemes. She joins us to talk about several geo-engineering ideas: from the do-able (ocean fertilization, cloud seeding) to the far-out (putting giant mirrors in space).

Two of Catherine's recent articles:
A high-albedo diet will chill the planet
'Climate fix' ship sets sail with plan to dump iron

(Photo courtesy jurvetson via Flickr/CC)

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Your report suggests that the replenishment of iron to the oceans to accomplish ocean eco-restoration is some new idea that has not been studied and hence we must go slow. Over the past 20 years the international science community has spent a quarter of billion in research on this topic including countless lab studies and many many ocean experiments. This work follows on the long tradition of study of the role of natural iron from dust that stimulates ocean plankton blooms.

The fact that you force ocean iron micronutrient replenishment and ocean eco-restoration into the same box as launching giant mirrors into space, as opposed to the organic gardening it really is, reveals your bias.

The geo-engineering of the planet of concern is the pre-existing result of your (and our) lifestyle and outrageous burning of fossil fuels. However the issue of whether we continue to or how much fossil fuel we burn is now moot. CO2 has a lifetime in the air of a century or more. Eventually it is dissolved into the surface ocean which covers 70% of this blue planet where it either becomes carbonic acid or it becomes ocean plants. The CO2 driven acidification of the oceans from CO2 alone is sufficient to continue the mass extinction of life in the oceans we are now observing. Even if not one single additional molecule of CO2 is emitted! There is already a massive and deadly carbon bomb airborne. The ONLY means to lessen the impact of that carbon bomb is to replenish the iron we have denied the ocean through our geo-engineering of the lands and in doing so restore and nurture ocean plant life so that it might convert that CO2 into life not acidic death. This is the intention of those of us involved in ocean eco-restoration which is so blithely spin mastered into the perjoritive term iron fertilization. Read more at www.planktos-science.com

Submitted by russ on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 15:28.

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Word of Mouth is all about what's new. Online and on-air, the show looks at our fascinating and ever-changing world, and puts the latest ideas under a microscope. Word of Mouth investigates everything from science and technology, to health and the environment, to new trends in popular culture. The show airs Monday through Thursday at noon and is hosted by Virginia Prescott.