http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/nov/14/climate-change-scripps/
Extract LEINEN: I did research in this area of geoengineering. When people talk about carbon capture, they generally are talking about capturing carbon emissions at the exit point. And going through some kind of a chemical process to take the CO2 and not sequester that. That is different from geoengineering which is saying let’s do something that affects the ability of the planet to take up CO2. So carbon capture is something that there is a lot of interest in. I’m aware of three companies that have gotten very substantial investments in being able to explore the technology of carbon capture. And one of the big issues is what do we do in terms of sequestration of that carbon? Where do we put it? The U.S. Geological Survey has done an extensive amount of work on looking at sites for storage of carbon. And some of the issues that they don’t yet understand are one, leakage. So you get it into something. is it going to stay there? And then second, impact on water. So in the same way that the CO2 in the atmosphere is dissolving in the ocean and making that slightly more acidic if you put CO2 in contact with groundwater you’ll make that groundwater more acidic than it is. So there are a lot of questions. That’s one side. And on the other side is the more out there ideas like putting aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight back. Or fertilizing the oceans to take up CO2. There most of the science community has agreed that these are interesting ideas, and we understand conceptually how they might work. But we have no data on how they would actually work. So the scientific community has argued for doing the research that would allow us to do that. Recently there was a major national academy report that calls for getting on with the research and especially the pieces that would be sort of very small-scale field experiments. On the other hand, the science community has been stung very badly for advocating for that research. And all of us know individuals who have been (stung) by all kinds of groups for tinkering with Mother Nature when they’re really advocating very responsible research. So when there’s a sanctioned group like the National Academy, we all say, yes, we want to see that research done. When it comes to individuals saying, I’ll sign up to do it, and request funding for it, people are very concerned. LEVIN: I think there’s a general consensus, but it’s very risky to act on using geoengineering without the research prior. Everybody understands that any of those proposed actions will have huge reverberations on the way ecosystems work and the cycles on our planet. SOMERVILLE: Scientists like ourselves, we’re not here to advocate policy. And certainly Scripps and UCSD and UC don’t take policy positions. We’re here simply to say what the science can provide as input to those decisions, which are really political and popular decisions that we’re not going to take. I for one, being one citizen of the planet, I’m terribly worried about unforeseen consequences of the more drastic kinds of geoengineering. I’m concerned with the moral and ethical and legal dimensions. Who has the right to do that on behalf of all humankind? Who pays for the damages that are collateral to what you do? And so my personal view, not a science view, it has to do with my own values and priorities is that it’s good to do research. But I very much hope that we will be able to avoid some of what I consider the less well explored, less well understood geoengineering. There’s a lot of other things that can be done. There’s lots of ways to reduce emissions. You drive a more fuel-efficient car, that’s a good example, you’re helping the climate. You’re putting money in your pocket. It’s difficult in this country to get political agreement on that. Because one of the major parties denies that there’s a problem. Absolutely in denial about the problem. Listen to the presidential debates — these things are not being brought up. -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
