Today: Geoengineering

Geoengineering is purposeful human alteration of the environment.

Farmland and cities are small to medium scaled geoengineered landscapes

We already saw Dr. David Keith's video about reducing the intensity of incoming sunlight...

Geoengineering: If earth is instrumentally valuable, why should we not alter it to suit human needs? If it is intrinsically valuable, can we alter it without affecting other organisms?

Ideas for using Geoengineering to lessen the impacts of Global Climate Change

Local climate management has been/ is being carried out in Russia and China...

Moscow’s plan is to disperse a mixture of silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder into clouds to trigger precipitation. The goal is to minimize snowfall in the city, but results in increased snowfall in the areas just outside Moscow where the clouds empty their load.

Controlling the weather in Moscow is nothing new. Ahead of the two main holidays celebrated in the city each year — Victory Day in May and City Day in September — the often cash-strapped air force is paid to make sure that it doesn't, well, rain on the parades. Cost ~$2-3 million

Beijing's weather was modified to keep the 2008 Olympics dry. In China there are 31 provincial or municipal weather-modification offices in China. The administration employs 52,998 people by its own count.

Ideas for using Geoengineering to lessen the impacts of Global Climate Change... The Ocean

A Novel Geoengineering Idea: Increase the Ocean’s Quotient of Whale Poop

Before commercial whaling began, baleen whales may have been the source of almost 12 percent of all the iron in the Southern Ocean’s surface water.

Efforts to test the effectiveness of adding nutrients to the ocean have met with limited success. “Iron-Dumping Experiment Is a Bust: It Feeds Crustaceans, Doesn’t Trap Carbon” “Ocean Geoengineering Scheme May Prove Lethal” sequestration-phytoplankton.html

Bill Gates Funding Geoengineering Research, including a plan to use ships to cool the ocean and decrease hurricane strength

Ideas for using Geoengineering to lessen the impacts of Global Climate Change... Remove CO 2 from atmosphere

Machines to remove CO 2 from atmosphere: Need area about size of Arizona... Where to put the CO 2 ?

Ideas for using Geoengineering to lessen the impacts of Global Climate Change... Block incoming sunlight

Increase cloud cover

Reflect sunlight from upper atmosphere/space

March 2010 meeting convened top geoengineers, tried to develop guidelines, problems highlighted: Political issues and National security

March 2010 meeting convened top geoengineers, tried to develop guidelines, problems highlighted: Political issues and National security Testing effectiveness may be difficult

What does it take to change the climate? Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull Volcano is not enough

What does it take to change the climate? Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991

Lowered global temp. by about 0.5 o C

What does it take to change the climate? Mt. Tambora erupted in The eruption was so large the volcano went from ~14,000 ft. to ~9,000 ft. This is not Tambora, it is Pinatubo

Tambora in 1815: Tambora's volcanic cloud lowered global temperatures by as much as 3 o C. Even a year after the eruption, most of the northern hemisphere experienced sharply cooler temperatures during the summer months. In parts of Europe and in North America, 1816 was known as "the year without a summer."

Ideas for using Geoengineering to lessen the impacts of Global Climate Change

Today: Geoengineering