Clive is certainly getting his views heard, and not just on geoengineering....
Scientific American, yesterday, published<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-global-warming-cooler-than-expected>quotes from Clive citing him as an authority on how serious climate change is (it will bring on large scale, harmful consequences for life on Earth), and what can be done about it (it's too late) AND on how seriously anyone should take the latest study<http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1836.html>on climate sensitivity published in Nature Geoscience. Reporter Alex Kirby selected Clive, a *professor of public ethics*, for quotes as to the quality and importance of this new study, to place alongside quotes from Alexander Otto, the study's lead author, Myles Allen who is one of the co-authors, and Geoff Jenkins (who Kirby bills as the "former head of climate change prediction at the UK Met Office"). Sci-Am author Kirby actually thought Clive's view that this new study "should certainly be taken very seriously" is the kind of thing his readers wanted or needed to hear, as opposed to the views of anyone else, say an actual climatologist with stature who has mastered the literature on climate sensitivity. The Scientific American article is *Is Global Warming Cooler than Expected?<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-global-warming-cooler-than-expected> * The paper Kirby discusses in the Sci-Am article is Energy budget constraints on climate respons<http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1836.html>e. (Nature is making this* Correspondence* paper freely available at their website). On Wednesday, May 22, 2013 3:40:46 PM UTC-7, andrewjlockley wrote: > > Poster's note : This is part of a series. I won't post them all. > > http://blogs.redding.com/dcraig/archives/2013/05/the-age-of-clim-2.html > > The age of climate engineering is upon us (3) > > Some billionaires are playing both side of this game. Take Murray Edwards, > for example. Edwards is a major investor in the Canadian oil sands, "but he > also has put money into a company called Carbon Engineering, managed--owned > by David Keith, the scientist we saw, and in which Bill Gates has an > investment.Speaking on Democracy Now! yesterday, Clive Hamilton said, "But, > you see, the reason why these conservatives like geoengineering, it's > because they see it as a substitute for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. > They see it as a permanent solution to global warming. They see it as > a...vindication of the system. They see...geoengineering as a way of > protecting the system, of preserving the political economic system, whereas > others say the problem is the political and economic system, and it's that > which we have to change."Relying on climate engineering is not risk-free > Hamilton reports. In fact, "The potential risks are enormous: disrupting > the food chain, damaging the ozone layer, the loss of monsoon rains in > Asia." Hamilton explains that while "installing this solar shield around > the Earth through a sulfate aerosol layer...will certainly cool the > Earth...it will also affect and change global rainfall patterns." In > fact, "it could shift the Indian monsoon...which provides the annual water > for a billion or more people."Hamilton asks us to consider what happens > if "either the United States or China decides, in a desperate state, to > install this solar shield, and it shifts the Indian monsoon, and there's a > massive continuing drought, and people are going hungry."What then?While > all of us are unintentionally conspiring together to alter the climate of > the Earth through our greenhouse gas emissions, Hamilton asks us to > consider the "geopolitical implications" when we turn to our government to > save us from ourselves with geoengineering schemes.He states, "Here you've > got a government, probably, backed by the military, probably, or in > collaboration with their military, actually setting out to regulate the > temperature of the Earth, which may suit their interests. It may help fix > their climate, but if it's severely damaging the climate of another > country, particularly a poor country, I mean, what are they going to do? If > it's a nuclear-armed country--you know, these are the kind of scenarios > that are attracting the attention of the military planners, who are > now--the Pentagon, for example, is taking an interest in geoengineering, > because they can see some of these longer-term implications."It is the > age-old problem. As we seek to solve one problem we create several more. > And we can't be naive. Our always amusing and gullible denier friends may > have their heads in the sand as they deny the most obvious scientific facts > of global climate change. However, there aren't any deniers in the Pentagon > or in China's military leadership. They take global warming extremely > seriously and are considering the inevitability of geoengineering.Hamilton > discussed the "militarization of climate change itself, the geostrategic > implications of a changing climate around the world, the potential > destabilization that it is likely to bring about, particularly if we > continue to do little about it. And so, when it comes to geoengineering > schemes, using technology to essentially take control of the world's > climate, it's no wonder that the Pentagon has now got people, you know, on > the case, watching the scientific debate and taking note of the fact, for > example, that China a year ago included geoengineering amongst its earth > science research priorities."We can see that the emergence of a kind of > global situation, where a number of nations are starting to investigate > geoengineering, in the absence of regulation or, at this stage, any kind of > global cooperation or transparency, and so it's no wonder that the Pentagon > is taking an interest in it. I mean, it would be derelict in its duty if it > weren't taking an interest in the emerging science and geopolitics of > geoengineering."Of course, we could just not heat up the climate in the > first place but we seem intent on doing this the hard way. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
