by: Kerstin Johansson
Geo-engineering is planetary engineering. Geo-engineering projects are large scale and would and transform the environment to combat global warming and keep the Earth at optimum conditions for human use. Geo-engineering has become more researched ever since global warming has become a widely accepted problem. Geo-engineering projects include projects to control the amount of solar radiation (sunlight) reaching the Earth’s surface and projects to control the amount of heat re-radiating and leaving the Earth’s surface. The technology is available today to do many of these projects.
Some examples of geo-engineering projects that could be implemented in the future if we become desperate enough are: increase the cloud cover and cloud density over oceans by creating sea spray that reaches high altitudes, sulfur-aerosol injection to change the proportions of the atmospheric makeup and lower Earth’s temperature, and add large amounts of iron to the ocean to create enormous algae blooms that can intake lots of carbon dioxide. We have the technology to do all of these projects now if we wanted to. One method of climate reversal that has been proposed but is not technologically feasible now is quite outrageous. The idea is to create sun shields by shooting millions of ceramic disks into space.
Geo-engineering climate change reversal methods are extreme, dangerous, and many times irreversible with unknown effects. They are considered for use only when the situation needs to be solved immediately. Because they are so inexpensive one person could potentially start one of these projects this could be very dangerous. Could geo-engineering projects be our solution in the future if we don’t get climate change under control now?
Wood, Graeme. “Energy & Earth: Moving Heaven and Earth.” The Atlantic July/August 2009. 70-76.
5 comments:
This sounds like a good idea in theory but I feel like there are many ways in which this could have irreversible negative effects on the environment if we do not scientifically understand the implications of such a project entirely. I think governments and international organizations should look into this but we must understand that tampering with the fragile climate system may have devastating effects which we probably cannot begin to comprehend now. I believe that we must cooperate globally to combat climate change and looking into projects that are as inexpensive as this is a good start to being able to afford the solution economically but the question is will we properly implement these projects in a way that we can afford their effects environmentally in the long run.
As I first started reading I too thought it sounded like the solution to all our global warming problems. However, by the end of the post I had changed my mind. It seems like we trying to have total control over the universe and it will just end up causing more problems than helping. It is up to us to change how we are to help the environment not develop more technology so we can continue to causing more problem that will late have to be fixed. As of right now I think there are many other options that should be looked into before jumping into the most dangerous one.
This is a great topic. It sounds great to reverse human-caused impacts on a big scale. I don't see this really going anywhere. Messing with these big scale systems might cause more harm then preventing it. The plan for Geo-engineering is to strong of a tactic and in the end will not be able to combat the negative outcomes hard to predict initially. We can't completely control the universe but we can make lifestyle changes which significantly benefit the environment and thats how it should be done. I think when we talk about how human caused disturbances are destroying the natural state of the environment, putting ceramic disks and spraying sea spray would not be natural.
It seems like a bad idea to start messing with a system we don't understand. It's almost like a bad James Bond movie where the bad guy is holding the earth hostage or he'll dump tons of iron into the ocean. I've heard some other crazy ideas along this line too. One of my professors works at NCAR and he was saying one of his colleagues there is looking at the idea of detonating an atom bomb way up in the atmosphere so all the particles released would then cool the planet. What could possibly go wrong with that plan?
While its nice to know that if everything hits the fan we have the technology for a potential fix. However, how can we really know what the consequences of large-scale projects like these would cause? If we change cloud cover it might affect plants and animals in some unforeseeable way that creates mass famine. A little drastic, but the point is clear. For example, I believe China seeded clouds in attempt to create rain to wash away the smog before the Olympics. It worked some, but not all of the time. When it didn't work were those seeded clouds moving somewhere else and then dumping rain? Adversely affecting another environment? It's hard to know.
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