http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=47204#.Vw47qHr53sA
Sulphur sunshade is a stupid pollution solution
Greg Foyster | 13 April 2016
It's a credo of consumer capitalism: never address the cause when you
can create an industry treating the symptoms.
'Problem' pollution is overrun by 'solution' pollution. Cartoon by Greg
FoysterThis is the logic behind many profitable businesses, from
cholesterol-lowering pills that compensate for poor diet and lack of
exercise to factories that recycle unnecessary packaging.
Now there's a new technofix on the table, and it's called
geoengineering. Geoengineering means intervening in the Earth's climate
to counter, or offset, global warming. It's hacking the planet on a
monumental scale.
Some proposals sound like pure science fiction. Building 'artificial
trees' to suck in carbon dioxide. Fertilising entire oceans with iron,
trigging carbon-sequestering algal blooms. Launching a fleet of ships to
patrol the ocean, pumping seawater into the air to 'brighten' marine clouds.
The most ambitious and widely studied is spraying sulphate particles
into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight, cooling the planet.
The idea comes from huge volcanic eruptions, which can blast millions of
tonnes of sulphur into the stratosphere, creating a kind of chemical
sunshade. When Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991, the
Earth cooled by about half a degrees Celsius over the next year.
After decades of being taboo, this outlandish scheme, called 'solar
radiation management', is now being taken seriously. It's been explored
through scientific papers in major journals, reports of the UK's Royal
Society, hearings in the US Congress, and a recent report of the US
National Academy of Sciences.
Some environmentalists and climate scientists say it may be a 'necessary
evil' to avoid catastrophic climate tipping points. Controversially, the
most recent IPCC Assessment Report mentioned geoengineering in the
prominent final paragraph of its Summary for Policymakers.
"Dimming the sun wouldn't solve the other problems caused by carbon
pollution. Dissolved carbon dioxide would still acidify our oceans. The
climate would still change."
There are deep pockets behind it too. Techno-philanthropist Bill Gates
is a leading financer. Venture capitalists are circling, and some
proposals have already been patented.
A firm called Intellectual Ventures owns the intellectual property for
the 'StratoShield', an invention to deliver sulphur dioxide into the
upper atmosphere through a 30-km-long hose supported by balloons. A
professor at Harvard, David Keith, is pushing for more research and testing.
Neoconservative think tanks have leapt at the technology, arguing it's a
cheaper solution to global warming than cutting emissions and
restructuring the economy. Once the post-Paris Agreement buzz wears off
and governments realise the hard work ahead of them, they might find
this line seductive.
As a thought experiment to highlight the warped logic behind
geoengineering, I'm proposing my own climate-hacking invention. It's
called The Problem-Solution Generator, and it has two parts.
The 'Problem' is a dirty coal power station that spews carbon dioxide
into the lower atmosphere, overheating the planet. Burning coal also
releases other forms of air pollution — sulphur dioxide, nitrogen
oxides, soot particles and mercury — responsible for millions of deaths
worldwide.
The 'Solution' is a 30-km-high smoke stack which separates the sulphur
dioxide emissions and pumps them into the stratosphere, where they won't
make people sick and should cool the planet. Thus a single machine
generates a problem and then solves it — The Problem-Solution Generator!
Of course, we could shut down coal power stations and not create the
problem in the first place. But that would address the cause — rising
carbon emissions — which isn't what technofixes like geoengineering are
about. So let's continue the thought experiment, using some of the same
arguments as for other sulphur-spraying ideas.
Advocates of solar radiation management say that, unlike other responses
to global warming, it doesn't upset the economic or political status
quo. It's as if the current composition of society is more permanent and
fixed than the composition of the entire upper atmosphere.
The Problem-Solution Generator shares this assumption. Fossil fuel
companies could continue making money off heating the planet, while also
making money off cooling the planet. It's a win-win!
There are a few concerns. Previous large volcanic eruptions have been
associated with lower global rainfall and famine. Climate modelling
indicates solar radiation management might dry the Amazon and disrupt
the Asian and African monsoons. The sulphur particles could damage the
ozone layer.
The biggest fear is switching the off button. Carbon dioxide persists in
the atmosphere for centuries, but sulphur particles only stick around
the stratosphere for a few years, so if we suddenly stop pumping the
stuff up there, the temperature could spike abruptly. The faster the
rate of warming, the less time plants and animals have to adapt, risking
widespread ecosystem collapse.
But in the spirit of Silicon Valley techno-optimism, let's look at these
as opportunities. Lower global rainfall? That's an opportunity for a
spin-off industry in cloud-seeding drones. Disrupted monsoons? They'll
mostly affect poor African and Asian subsistence farmers, so the cost to
the global economy will be small. Dangerous to stop once we start? That
just shows what a great business model it is!
Dimming the sun wouldn't solve the other problems caused by increased
carbon pollution. Dissolved carbon dioxide would still acidify our
oceans. The climate would still change, just differently. We might still
see mass extinctions and so forth. But our clever minds will soon solve
these problems too. The important thing is that we maintain our faith in
human progress.
Sound crazy? This kind of thinking is actually conventional. The
underlying assumption of Western industrial society is that nature is a
resource for our exclusive use. Geoengineering just takes this
domination of the natural world to its logical extreme. In one sense,
complete control of the planet is where our civilisation has been
heading for centuries.
In Earthmasters, Clive Hamilton writes that geoengineering proposals
'entail building a vast industrial infrastructure in order to counter
the damage done by another vast industrial infrastructure'. If the
Problem-Solution Generator seems colossally stupid, it's only because it
makes the stupidity of geoengineering technofixes utterly transparent.
Greg Foyster is an environment journalist, an alumni of Centre for
Sustainability Leadership, and the author of the book Changing Gears.
Cartoon by Greg Foyster
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