Hi All
If somebody suggested a great way to stop the rise of ocean acidity
would Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a vice-chair of the IPCC, claim that is
does nothing about rising temperatures?
Stephen
Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design School of Engineering
University of Edinburgh Mayfield Road Edinburgh EH9 3JL Scotland
[email protected] Tel +44 (0)131 650 5704 Cell 07795 203 195
WWW.see.ed.ac.uk/~shs
On 02/12/2012 13:19, Andrew Lockley wrote:
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#story/sns-rt-us-climate-talks-geoengineeringbre8b103y-20121202/
Geo-engineering wins scant enthusiasm at U.N. climate talks
Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle,Reuters11:06 am, December 2,
2012DOHA
Cheap, short-cut ideas to cool the planet such as shading sunlight are
failing to win support from U.N. delegates looking to improve on the
slow progress made by existing technologies.Many scientists say the
proposed solutions, known as geo-engineering, are little understood
and might have side effects more damaging than global warming, which
is projected to cause more floods, heatwaves, droughts and rising sea
levels."Let's first use what we know," said Christiana Figueres, head
of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, dismissing suggestions that it
was time to try geo-engineering to halt a rise in greenhouse gas
emissions."There are so many proven technologies we know exist that
are tried and true that have not been used to their maximum
potential," she told Reuters. "To begin with, the simplest is energy
efficiency."Geo-engineering options include adding sun-reflecting
chemicals to the upper atmosphere to mimic the effect of big volcanic
eruptions that mask the sun, or fertilizing the oceans to promote the
growth of algae that soak up carbon from the air.Among other ideas, a
giant mirror could be placed in space to block some sunlight or sea
spray could be injected into the air to create clouds whose white tops
would reflect sunlight."Let's face it, geo-engineering has a lot of
unknowns," Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N.'s panel of climate
scientists, told Reuters on the sidelines of U.N.-led climate change
talks among 200 nations in Doha from November 26-Dec 7."How can you go
into an area where you don't know anything?" he said. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is examining
geo-engineering in depth for the first time as part of a major report
due in 2013 and 2014.Still, one study by U.S. scientists in August
indicated that planes or airships could carry a million tonnes a year
of sun-dimming sulfate materials high into the atmosphere for an
affordable price tag of below $5 billion.CHEAPERThat would be far
cheaper than policies to cut world greenhouse gas emissions, estimated
to cost between $200 billion and $2 trillion a year by 2030, they
wrote in the journal Environmental Research Letters."If you are
looking at solutions you could look at solar energy," said Mira
Mehrishi, head of India's delegation in Doha. "It's a little premature
to start looking at geo-engineering.""There's a lot of skepticism"
about geo-engineering, said Artur Runge-Metzger of the European
Commission. "Research is necessary to see if it could be viable in one
way or other."U.N. negotiations on slowing global warming have been
running since a U.N. Climate Convention was agreed in 1992.One problem
is that adding sulfates - a form of pollution - to the air would not
slow an acidification of the oceans since concentrations of greenhouse
gases led by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would keep building
up.Some carbon dioxide, absorbed into the oceans, reacts to form
carbonic acid. That erodes the ability of creatures from clams or
mussels to lobsters and crabs to build their protective shells. In
turn, that could disrupt marine food chains."You might temporarily
delay the warming but you are certainly not going to help the oceans
at all," said Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a vice-chair of the IPCC, of
using sulfates. "Ocean acidification is a real emerging issue."A mask
of pollution might help some crops by reducing heat stress but it
might have other side-effects, for instance, by disrupting Monsoon
patterns. That could bring disputes between countries that benefited
and others that suffered.And Van Ypersele said that, if
geo-engineering went wrong and needed to be shut down after a few
years, there would be a big, damaging jump in temperatures.
(Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)
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