[geo] Colbert isn't the only humorist exploring geo-engineering
If you haven't seen the 2008 video at bottom of this post, have a look: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/engineering-the-climate-colberts-all-chocolate-dinner/ HUMOR http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/category/humor/ December 13, 2013, 10:13 am Commenthttp://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/engineering-the-climate-colberts-all-chocolate-dinner/#postComment Engineering the Climate – Colbert’s ‘All-Chocolate Dinner’By ANDREW C. REVKIN http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/author/andrew-c-revkin/ *The Colbert Report* Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodeshttp://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/ ,Video Archive http://www.colbertnation.com/video I’ve been meaning to post this since Tuesdayhttps://twitter.com/Revkin/status/410436671008542721, but better late than never. I encourage you, as a tonic for anything that ails, to watch Stephen Colbert’s conversationhttp://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/431083/december-09-2013/david-keith with David Keith http://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/dkeith, the Harvard professor of applied physics and public policy, on his book, “A Case for Climate Engineering http://www.keith.seas.harvard.edu/book.” The discussion is all aimed at humor, of course, with Colbert reacting to Keith’s argument for blunting global warming with sun-blocking sulfate aerosolshttp://www.spiegel.de/international/world/scientist-david-keith-on-slowing-global-warming-with-geoengineering-a-934359.html this way: So we owe acid rain an apology, is what you’re saying. And to drive the point home further, he adds: This is the all-chocolate dinner. I get to have my CO2 and I get to spray sulfuric acid all over the Earth. But behind the laughs, they end up circling to serious issues, including the question I’ve explored here several times: Who gets to set Earth’s thermostat?http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/who-gets-to-set-earths-thermostat/ Highly paid comedians aren’t alone in touching on engineering the climate in a lighthearted way. In case you missed it, here’s a student-shot video explaining geo-engineering, which I first highlighted in my 2008 post “Fun With Mirrors and Dust – a Climate Fix?”http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/fun-with-mirrors-and-dust-a-climate-fix/ : - -- *_* ANDREW C. REVKIN Dot Earth blogger http://www.nytimes.com/dotearth, The New York Times Senior Fellow http://www.pace.edu/paaes/faculty-and-staff, Pace U. Academy for Applied Env. Studies Cell: 914-441-5556 Fax: 914-989-8009 Twitter: @revkin http://twitter.com/revkin Skype: Andrew.Revkin Music: A Very Fine Line http://veryfinelines.com CD -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
RE: [geo] McDermott White Paper (2002) on accelerated carbonate weathering as a CCS approach
My chemistry is as or more rusty, but isn’t HCO3- in a second equilibrium, with CO2 and water? Does increasing the HCO3- concentration push CO2 out of the ocean? Peter Flynn Peter Flynn, P. Eng., Ph. D. Emeritus Professor and Poole Chair in Management for Engineers Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Alberta peter.fl...@ualberta.ca cell: 928 451 4455 *From:* geoengineering@googlegroups.com [mailto: geoengineering@googlegroups.com] *On Behalf Of *Ken Caldeira *Sent:* December-13-13 12:06 PM *To:* Keith Henson *Cc:* Elton Sherwin; tim.kru...@oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk; geoengineering; Andrew Lockley *Subject:* Re: [geo] McDermott White Paper (2002) on accelerated carbonate weathering as a CCS approach The basic idea is: CO2 (gas) + CaCO3 (solid) + H2O (liquid) -- Ca2+ + 2 HCO3- (dissolved in the ocean) ___ Ken Caldeira Carnegie Institution for Science Dept of Global Ecology 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA +1 650 704 7212 kcalde...@carnegiescience.edu http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab https://twitter.com/KenCaldeira On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 3:10 PM, Keith Henson hkeithhen...@gmail.com wrote: Elton, could you real quickly go through the chemistry involved? I miss seeing how CaCO3 absorbs more CO2, but my chemistry is rusty by many decades. Keith On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Elton Sherwin esher...@carbonzeroinstitute.org wrote: I am very interested in using limestone to sequester CO2 in power plants. This approach--and related limestone based approaches--seem to have promise. And as Ken says they look more affordable than competing technologies. Not sure how our little underfund institute can help, but let me know if I can. Elton Sherwin Executive Director, Carbon Zero Institute Cell: 650.823.9221 www.CarbonZeroInstitute.org From: geoengineering@googlegroups.com [mailto:geoengineering@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ken Caldeira Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2013 8:30 AM To: tim.kru...@oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk Cc: geoengineering; Andrew Lockley Subject: [geo] McDermott White Paper (2002) on accelerated carbonate weathering as a CCS approach Tim, As per your request to Andrew, attached is an analysis of using accelerated limestone weathering to sequester CO2 from power plant flue gases and dispose of it in the ocean, with the carbon acidity neutralized by the alkalinity provided by the calcium in the calcium carbonate. They concluded that this approach was both economically viable and had much lower energy overheads than did conventional CCS with amine scrubbers and suchlike. This is an area in which Greg Rau has done a lot of work, and in which I have done some work: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg_Rau/ Best, Ken PS. McDermott Technologies, Inc, used to own Babcock and Wilcox, the nuclear engineering company, but spun this off in 2010: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-McDermott_to_spin_off_BandW-0707104.html ___ Ken Caldeira Carnegie Institution for Science Dept of Global Ecology 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA +1 650 704 7212 kcalde...@carnegiescience.edu http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab https://twitter.com/KenCaldeira -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- 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. For more options, visit
[geo] Engineering the Climate – Colbert’s ‘All-Chocolate Dinner’ - NYTimes.com
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/dotearth/2013/12/13/engineering-the-climate-colberts-all-chocolate-dinner/?_r=0; Engineering the Climate – Colbert’s ‘All-Chocolate Dinner’ By ANDREW C. REVKIN December 13, 2013 The Colbert Report I’ve been meaning to post this since Tuesday, but better late than never. I encourage you, as a tonic for anything that ails, to watch Stephen Colbert’s conversation with David Keith, the Harvard professor of applied physics and public policy, on his book, “A Case for Climate Engineering.”The discussion is all aimed at humor, of course, with Colbert reacting to Keith’s argument for blunting global warming with sun-blocking sulfate aerosols this way:So we owe acid rain an apology, is what you’re saying.And to drive the point home further, he adds:This is the all-chocolate dinner. I get to have my CO2 and I get to spray sulfuric acid all over the Earth.But behind the laughs, they end up circling to serious issues, including the question I’ve explored here several times: Who gets to set Earth’s thermostat?Highly paid comedians aren’t alone in touching on engineering the climate in a lighthearted way. In case you missed it, here’s a student-shot video explaining geo-engineering, which I first highlighted in my 2008 post “Fun With Mirrors and Dust – a Climate Fix?”:[Video: Watch on YouTube.]Postscript, 10:40 a.m.: The folks at Greenbiz.com have just posted video of my performance of “Liberated Carbon” at the Verge Conference in San Francisco earlier this fall. The song is on my new (and first) CD and you can see my video of the album version (with a band) here. -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
Re: [geo] McDermott White Paper (2002) on accelerated carbonate weathering as a CCS approach
Ken, list etal (adding Greg Rau, who probably is closest to this) 1. The price per ton CO2 given at the bottom of Table 3 in the McDermott paper given by Ken a few days ago came to $20.70/ton CO2. Converting to 2013 $ (about 30% more over the 2001 $ used), metric units and carbon (rather than CO2, using the ratio 44/12) gives about $100/Tonne C today. This is, I believe, quite attractive compared to other numbers being floated around for CCS. I have been asked by a friend whether there has been any commercialization attempt at this since 2002 - and if not why not? This is the only question; the next two items are just comments - translating this over to the world of biochar. 2. This doesn’t yet fall into the category of CDR, but could with biomass replacing coal (then probably should not be called BECCS or BECS, since the term CCS seems best reserved for underground CO2 storage.). Needing smaller plants to keep biomass transport cost down, that results in lower efficiency, has anybody estimated a CDR costing? Maybe $125-$150/tonne C? (Asking for a scaling factor when plant size falls by a factor of 10) Note this could be the back end as well of some biomass electrical generating systems where pyrolysis rather than combustion is employed; then about half the C in the input biomass would be released as CO2. 3. Because charcoal is not 100% carbon, one would have to pay less than about $125 /tonne of char to receive a break-even sequestration credit of $100/tonne C. (Or stated conversely, if you paid $100/tonne char, the sequestration value should not be more than $80/tonne C (in a societal sense, the farmer/forester, will of course try to minimize the cost of the char The point of these quick computations is to say that there would be lots of farmers and foresters willing to put char in the ground if the going rate for sequestration were roughly $100/tonne C (or $27/tonne CO2 or $80/tonne char). That is - I am claiming the long term value to the farmer/forester and society would exceed these “$100” numbers. Ron On Dec 13, 2013, at 12:06 PM, Ken Caldeira kcalde...@carnegiescience.edu wrote: The basic idea is: CO2 (gas) + CaCO3 (solid) + H2O (liquid) -- Ca2+ + 2 HCO3- (dissolved in the ocean) ___ Ken Caldeira Carnegie Institution for Science Dept of Global Ecology 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA +1 650 704 7212 kcalde...@carnegiescience.edu http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab https://twitter.com/KenCaldeira On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 3:10 PM, Keith Henson hkeithhen...@gmail.com wrote: Elton, could you real quickly go through the chemistry involved? I miss seeing how CaCO3 absorbs more CO2, but my chemistry is rusty by many decades. Keith On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 11:05 AM, Elton Sherwin esher...@carbonzeroinstitute.org wrote: I am very interested in using limestone to sequester CO2 in power plants. This approach--and related limestone based approaches--seem to have promise. And as Ken says they look more affordable than competing technologies. Not sure how our little underfund institute can help, but let me know if I can. Elton Sherwin Executive Director, Carbon Zero Institute Cell: 650.823.9221 www.CarbonZeroInstitute.org From: geoengineering@googlegroups.com [mailto:geoengineering@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ken Caldeira Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2013 8:30 AM To: tim.kru...@oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk Cc: geoengineering; Andrew Lockley Subject: [geo] McDermott White Paper (2002) on accelerated carbonate weathering as a CCS approach Tim, As per your request to Andrew, attached is an analysis of using accelerated limestone weathering to sequester CO2 from power plant flue gases and dispose of it in the ocean, with the carbon acidity neutralized by the alkalinity provided by the calcium in the calcium carbonate. They concluded that this approach was both economically viable and had much lower energy overheads than did conventional CCS with amine scrubbers and suchlike. This is an area in which Greg Rau has done a lot of work, and in which I have done some work: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Greg_Rau/ Best, Ken PS. McDermott Technologies, Inc, used to own Babcock and Wilcox, the nuclear engineering company, but spun this off in 2010: http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-McDermott_to_spin_off_BandW-0707104.html ___ Ken Caldeira Carnegie Institution for Science Dept of Global Ecology 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA +1 650 704 7212 kcalde...@carnegiescience.edu http://dge.stanford.edu/labs/caldeiralab https://twitter.com/KenCaldeira -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups geoengineering group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving
[geo] Why solar radiation management geoengineering and democracy won’t mix
http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=/a45649 doi:10.1068/a45649 Szerszynski B, Kearnes M, Macnaghten P, Owen R, Stilgoe J, 2013, Why solar radiation management geoengineering and democracy won’t mix Environment and Planning A 45(12) 2809 – 2816 Why solar radiation management geoengineering and democracy won’t mix Bronislaw Szerszynski, Matthew Kearnes, Phil Macnaghten, Richard Owen, Jack Stilgoe Abstract. In this paper we argue that recent policy treatments of solar radiation management (SRM) have insufficiently addressed its potential implications for contemporary political systems. Exploring the emerging ‘social constitution’ of SRM, we outline four reasons why this is likely to pose immense challenges to liberal democratic politics: that the unequal distribution of and uncertainties about SRM impacts will cause conflicts within existing institutions; that SRM will act at the planetary level and necessitate autocratic governance; that the motivations for SRM will always be plural and unstable; and that SRM will become conditioned by economic forces. Keywords: solar radiation management, geoengineering, governance, politics, democracy, social constitution of technology -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
