Major report to outline geoengineering policy
Published Monday, 31st August 2009
The Royal Society is set to release a major new policy report on geoengineering the climate in London tomorrow.
Geoengineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty will make recommendations “to ensure that any geoengineering activities are managed responsibly at national and international levels, and do not detract from wider efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Geoengineering involves technological means of tinkering with natural climate systems in an effort to offset global warming. Proposed fixes include fertilising the oceans with iron to stimulate carbon dioxide-absorbing plankton blooms, spraying sulphur aerosols into the atmosphere to block incoming sunlight and launching giant mirrors into space to reflect the sun’s radiation.
Created last autumn, the Royal Society’s geoengineering climate working group studied a wide range of proposals to determine whether they could be feasible or effective. The group also examined the potential environment and social impacts of geoengineering and sought to identify any possible unintended consequences of such schemes.
Working group members include John Shepherd of the National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton; Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Peter Cox of the University of Exeter; Joanna Haigh of Imperial College London; David Keith of the University of Calgary; Brian Launder of the University of Manchester; Georgina Mace of Imperial College London; John Pyle of the University of Cambridge; Steve Rayner of the University of Oxford; Catherine Redgwell of University College London; and Andrew Watson of the University of East Anglia.
Shepherd, Caldeira and Redgwell are among those scheduled to speak at tomorrow’s launch of the policy report. Also set to speak is noted scientist James Lovelock of Green College, Oxford.
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News Release: UK Royal Society on Geoengineering: The Emperor’s New Climate?
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ETC Group
News Release
28 August 2009
http://www.etcgroup.org
SCIENCE FICTIONS: UK’S ROYAL SOCIETY TO ISSUE MAJOR REPORT
ON GEOENGINEERING SEPTEMBER 1;
BAN REAL-WORLD EXPERIMENTS, SAYS ETC GROUP
The oldest scientific academy in the world, the UK’s Royal Society, will release its long-awaited report on geoengineering September 1st 2009 in London. The report, drafted by a panel dominated by geoengineering enthusiasts, is widely expected to recommend that the government support more research and perhaps even real-world experimentation of these controversial new technologies that intentionally manipulate the earth’s climate on a large scale with the aim of lessening the effects of climate change.
“Geoengineering is a bad idea, and, unfortunately, it may transform Lord Rees’s book from musings to memoir,” says Diana Bronson, researcher for the international technology watchdog ETC Group, referring to the Royal Society President’s 2004 book, Our Final Century, which suggested that humans may not live to see the end of the 21st century.
Geoengineering can refer to sulphate-injections in the stratosphere and cloud-whitening to reflect sunlight away from the earth, fertilization of the oceans with iron nano-particles to try to increase their carbon-carrying capacity, intentionally modifying global weather patterns, among other techniques.
“The Royal Society may be cautious in their report but, in fact, when it comes to geoengineering, a yellow light can quickly turn green. For the climate to take notice, any geoengineering scheme would have to be massive – sulphate particles or whitened clouds would have to deflect a lot of sunlight and ocean fertilization would have to cover great swathes of sea. Even the most careful computer models won’t be able to predict what will happen if an experiment is scaled-up and moved out of doors,” argues Bronson. “If governments believe there is a techno-fix to the climate change conundrum that will let them off the hook at the climate change treaty negotiations in Copenhagen, they will throw precious time and dollars at sci-fi fantasies, overlook potentially devastating side effects and divert their attention from the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions at source.”
ETC Group’s new special report, “The Emperor’s New Climate: Geoengineering as 21st century fairytale,” questions the narratives commonly used by the geoengineering lobby to advance their agenda. “Contrary to what geoengineers are saying, this is a costly time-waster,” says Bronson. The report calls for a broader international discussion and concludes that “any effort to experiment these technologies in the real world is nothing short of geopiracy and should be banned.”
ETC Group’s special report, “The Emperor’s New Climate: Geoengineering as 21st century fairytale,” is available on the Internet at http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.html?pub_id=762
For more information:
Diana Bronson (Montreal, Canada) diana@etcgroup.org
Phone: +1 514 273 6661; cell +1 514 629 9236
Kathy Jo Wetter (Durham, NC, USA) kjo@etcgroup.org
Phone: +1 919 688 7302
Silvia Ribeiro (Mexico City) silvia@etcgroup.org
Phone: 011 52 5555 6326 64
Molly Kane (Ottawa, Canada) molly@etcgroup.org
Phone: +1 613 241 2267, ext 26; cell +1 613 797-6421
Frankenscience.
You jounos’ need to expose the fact that the FRANKENSCIENCE aerosol programs have been running for over 10years without asking you or me before we were treated (and still are) like LAB RATS. Haven’t you ever wondered why the increase in cancers & diseases like MS, Motor Neuron, Alzhimers etc.. I wonder how you sleep at night.
Frankenscience.
This is outrageous and must stop! We are not guinea pigs. Stop with the chemtrails that are causing disease and cancer. Why don’t you journalists expose that!? How many people do you know who have cancer, MS, Breast cancer, Alzhiemers!? Ask yourself WHY!