[geo] wiki for geoengineering

[Nathan Currier]

I mentioned the idea last year of starting up a wiki for
geoengineering. I've just written up a draft of the basic introduction
for a site, and wonder if anyone has any comments. I can imagine that
some here might not appreciate the kind of 're-branding' I'm aiming
for, but I'd be curious to know.

cheers,

Nathan



Introduction

Geoengineering is virtually certain to become one of the dominant
issues of the 21st century. Not only is the climate changing rapidly
while emissions reductions have made little progress, but it is often
impossible, on practical terms, to draw clear boundaries between
emissions reductions and various technologies considered to be
geoengineering (CCS, for example). It could be said, therefore, that
no realistic discussion of climate change mitigation without inclusion
of geoengineering is possible. This does not mean, however, that
geoengineering as it is now popularly understood needs to define its
future.

The National Academy of Sciences has described geoengineering as
“deliberate large-scale engineering of our environment in order to
combat or counteract the effects of changes in atmospheric chemistry.”
By this definition, geoengineering is widely in practice and has been
so for several decades, including the lowering of nitrogen oxides,
carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and CFC levels in the atmosphere. For
none of these targets have the underlying problems been fully
resolved, yet in each case deliberate interventions have successfully
impacted global problems and ameliorated human-wrought damages to the
atmosphere with few negative side effects. Today, however,
geoeningeering has widely come to mean such engineering as applied to
global climate. This is a more difficult problem: indeed, the primary
negative side effect of ongoing non-climate geoengineering has been
mild exacerbation of warming.

Why a wiki?

In March 2010, the Asilomar International Conference on Climate
Intervention Technologies brought together scientists from around the
world, the largest such conference to date. Among its five key
recommendations was the need for more open and cooperative
geoengineering research. This wiki is intended to provide an open
source forum available to all those engaged in geoengineering
research, a fast-action platform for interdisciplinary communications
related to geoengineering, and a horizontally-structured meeting place
for those wanting to exchange information and get feedback for
relevant new ideas. Thus, this wiki could become a valuable tool in
establishing open, cooperative geoengineering research.

Why Gaia-engineering?

A primary barrier to climate geoengineering is public resistance. As
long as climate geoengineering is perceived to be a rough meddling
with the planetary system as a means to save money or effort in
grappling with greenhouse gas emissions, it is unlikely to be
practical or advisable. Climate change is an immensely complex
phenomenon for which public conceptualization is of great consequence,
and just as one cannot in reality fully consider mitigation without
geoengineering, so too can one not fully address geoengineering’s
reception without addressing public reception of global warming
itself. Unfortunately, even among those who readily receive the
message that human-engendered warming is real and dangerous, there is
often little capacity to cogitate global climate, since, despite
popular slogans like “think global, act local,” the global scale is
quite difficult for most people to grapple with.

The use of the word Gaia has been fraught with controversy since its
inception, generally being distained by scientists while enjoyed by
the public, and it might seem foolhardy to bring to the already
controversial realm of geoengineering the added controversy of the
word 'Gaia'. But Gaia's controversy is between a small number of
scientists, geoengineering's controversy is among the vastly larger
public. The idea of Gaia is in fact one of the few tools available to
help the public contemplate the global scale, and it does so through a
metaphor that could be uniquely helpful in bridging the gap between
the scientists developing such engineering and the public who will
need to support it. Maybe it is finally time for those earth
scientists who disdain the name Gaia to reconsider the ultimate
effects of their choices.

Gaia-engineering starts from the premise of seeing the planet as a
living system of nearly infinite complexity that must be treated with
the respect accorded a living being. Therefore, a manner of
Hippocratic oath automatically inheres in the idea of Gaia-
engineering, which is sorely lacking in current perceptions of
geoengineering (in fact, the Hippocratic oath demanded that one swear
not only to Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, but to all the
gods and goddesses).
Gaia-engineering, more than a mere public relations branding exercise,
might in fact be instructive for scientists, emphasizing the
continuous need for humility before 

RE: [geo] Post-doc Opportunity: Innovative Solutions to the Energy/Carbon/Climate Problem

[markcapron]

Ken - Please look for at least one to have an "ocean perspective."  Maybe someone who has born and lived on an island nation, or at least an ocean oriented education, the University of the South Pacific, University of Hawaii, etc.I will forward to those I know.Mark E. Capron, PEOxnard, Californiawww.PODenergy.org


 Original Message 
Subject: [geo] Post-doc Opportunity: Innovative Solutions to the
Energy/Carbon/Climate Problem
From: Ken Caldeira 
Date: Tue, January 24, 2012 9:38 am
To: geoengineering 

The two scientists on my staff who worked on the "crop yields and geoengineering" paper that just came out in Nature Climate Change (Julia Pongratz and Long Cao) will be leaving our research group shortly. They are irreplaceable, but their departure does open up two positions in my group. If you know of any good scientists who are about to our have recently become PhD level scientists, please let me (and them) know.  Post-doc Opportunity: Innovative Solutions to the Energy/Carbon/Climate Problem Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology on the Stanford campus. We use and modify existing physics and biogeochemical models of the Earth (atmosphere, ocean, and land surface), and do back-of-envelope calculations, to help evaluate and develop innovative solutions to the energy/carbon/climate problem. We also address questions related to basic climate science, energy-systems analysis, and ocean acidification.   We seek to hire several outstanding post-doctoral researchers who can lead research projects that contribute to some of these research directions. We are looking to develop an exciting collegial atmosphere with a lot of personal freedom, wherein each group member both leads research projects and collaborates on projects led by others. The initial term will be for one year with the potential for renewal for up to a maximum of three years. The position will be at the Carnegie Institution Dept. of Global Ecology on the Stanford University campus. Carnegie Institution post-docs have access to most Stanford facilities. Interested potential post-docs should send to kcalde...@carnegie.stanford.edu: (1) a curriculum vitae, (2) a few sentences on research interests and/or possible research projects, and (3) the names and contact info for three references. Key factors in our hiring decisions will be intelligence, thoughtfulness, creativity, motivation, productivity, and a record of successful scientific or technical publication. We are flexible with regard to your domain of expertise. The Carnegie Institution is an equal-opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on race, sex, age, physical condition, or country of national origin. ___Ken CaldeiraCarnegie Institution Dept of Global Ecology260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA+1 650 704 7212 kcalde...@carnegie.stanford.edu http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab  @kencaldeira  --  You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en. 





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