Keep the Sun Shining

It’s been a while since Flow tackled the issue of geo-engineering — the theoretical science of not just reducing our emissions to address climate change, but actively trying to change the climate. Perhaps because the proposed technologies are nearly all as drastic as you’d expect from a science based on literally engineering the planet — installing CO2 “scrubbing” air filters, encouraging CO2-consuming algae blooms — geo-engineering doesn’t often get a lot of attention. But now, one geo-engineering solution is getting a nod from none other than the United Nations itself, in the form of a proposed ban on any technology designed to block the sun.

While it’s easy to notice the oddly super-villain-like tone of a ban on massive orbital sun-blocking technologies, it’s also important to remember that any effective geo-engineering solution would necessarily involve the whole world. Allowing one country to unilaterally control the world’s climate would be an issue of national security.

The body responsible for this discussion is the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity, which has already issued another geo-engineering-related directive limiting the use of iron in the ocean as an algal fertilizer.

Solar energy is a phenomenal source of energy, with the Earth receiving a full 1.8×1014 kilowatt-hours of energy. According to the World Energy Council: “if only 0.1 per cent of this energy could be converted at an efficiency of only 10per cent it would be four times the world’s total generating capacity of about 3,000 [gigawatts].”

Rogue nations with massive mirrors and geo-engineering enthusiastic alike, beware:
We’re watching you.

Via Popular Science

Geo-engineering

With climatologists like Dr. James Hansen continuing to prognosticate on increasing global temperatures, and resistance to emission-reducing strategies like carbon taxes still an issue, consumers can be forgiven for wondering if there’s anything to be done to keep Earth from succumbing to an apocalyptic climate disaster.

Certainly, there’s no shortage of ways to change fuel consumption through taxes, cap-and-trade systems for carbon credits, or even physically removing cars from roadways. They’re all being tried in a variety of ways by countries around the world, but if predictions like Hansen’s are any indication, we might also need to begin considering more drastic measures.

As the Los Angeles Times reported this week, “geo-engineering” is an umbrella term for some of the most direct means of combating global warming. Rather than trying to reduce existing emissions, though this would still remain a part of any climate change strategy, geo-engineering would essentially attempt to rewire environmental conditions.

For example, where reducing emissions would theoretically reduce the amount of greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, American scientist Roger Angel has proposed a “sunshade” system that would deflect some of the sun’s light away from the Earth using trillion of specialized mirrors. Similarly, rather than only reducing the amount of CO2 sent into the atmosphere, Dr. Wallace Broecker has proposed that industrialized nations build atmospheric “scrubbers” to extract CO2 from the air.

Researched by institutions like The National Academy of Sciences, other geo-engineering techniques include cloud seeding, the manipulation of clouds and their attendant precipitation; stratosphere sulphur-spraying, which would mimic the cooling effect of a large eruption, like Mt. Pinatubo in The Philippines; and fertilizing large masses of phytoplankton, microscopic organisms who use CO2 in the process of photosynthesis.

Each of these ideas comes with its own potential hazards, not to mention unforeseen consequences. Huge “blooms” of phytoplankton could create their own environmental tolls, and any climate-related change is a tricky move at best, given that weather’s always been a touchy beast.

All geo-engineering techniques are, by definition, rebalancing the Earth’s ecosystem, albeit with the intention of making the Earth more livable. Whether they’ll move from the theoretical to the practical, however, remains to be seen.