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geoengineering

submitted by davidp on tue, 2009-02-03 08:06.

I have been wondering how long it would take for serious "geoengineering" proposals for addressing climatic change to become a matter of public discussion. I find these both worrisome and hopeful. Worrisome in that we could really screw things up. Hopeful in that it may become our only way to avoid truly massive destruction of our environment (including quite a few Homo sapiens) as a result of the march of human civilization …"On the matter of international regulation, over the past couple of decades, we have had “light regulation” of the financial sector. The rules have been inadequate, the regulatory bodies have had neither the legal powers nor the resources to do their jobs properly, corporations have appointed as auditors firms who were earning large fees from them as consultants, and so on. The result is the current global financial disaster. We cannot afford to see the same happen to the world's environment. If we are going to permit research into geoengineering, projects that aim to mitigate climate change by changing the Earth rather than what we do on it, we need international regulation that is clear, based on the best available science, rigorous and enforceable. And the decision making must be shared among representatives of the whole world, not just the nations that have commercial interests in the schemes proposed." See Saving the Climate Dangerously.

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don't get me started...oops - too late
submitted by robertkamper on tue, 2009-02-03 11:33.

That quote is spot on. He who slips the bandleader a large bit of fungible currency gets to call the next tune. We have seen what payola does in entertainment, banking, White House Science reports, and we know that the drip, drip, drip of the ice cap as it slowly melts into the sea is not as nearly as entertaining or likely to attract regulatory funding as the sight of Janet Jackson's use of body piercing ornamentation, although certainly the former might have greater impact on all us, unless you listen to a few non-scientists who believe that the latter is a better indicator of the end of human-sustainable conditions on the planet.
That reminds me. It's Tuesday and I still don't know who won the Super Bowl on Sunday. Any one want to take bets on how long I can maintain my ignorance?
What was I saying? Something about how it doesn't matter if a majority of people on the planet think it would be good if we ended poverty and hunger and war and regulated pollutants and environmentally harmful stuff if the "political will" in the form of the money and the power that goes with it doesn't want to give up the money and the power and share it for the good of all and the preservation of life and the planet.
It IS hopeful that enough small contributors put money and time into the Obama campaign to help elect a new US President who voted against the invasion of Iraq, and it has given us hope for change that he has taken immediate action to fulfill some of those campaign promises.
But we are not living in a Frank Capra movie and Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda are not out there (Good movie idea though, mix Obama footage with Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Meet John Doe, Grapes of Wrath, Young Mr Lincoln, etc.) ala Zelig or Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid...oh well)
And there are some reports I've read that it is too late - that greenhouse gases and global warming are past the point of no return because earlier math models didn't know about and didn't take into account methane and other gases released by the melting of the tundra, etc.
Although perhaps a few epidemics such as the current salmonella one in the US and a few pandemics caused by global travel and disease transmission (12 Monkeys, Outbreak double feature?) might reduce the human population enough that the earth could heal itself. But if the greenhouse gas levels are already on a roll, well, what can you do?
Another day, another stable, eh, Hercules?

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