The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Science Show today broadcast an interview with me titled Geoengineering Now Urgent <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/geoengineering-no w-urgent/101589282> (9 minutes), and further comments from my interview at the start of the program (2 minutes). The Science Show has been presented weekly by Robin Williams on ABC Radio National for 47 years.
This is timely as COP27 prepares to convene next week. I hope the geoengineering analysis here can be discussed at COP. Today's program (one hour) is titled Storms changing our coasts, plastic in the ocean, and a call for geoengineering. Link is https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/the-science-show/1 4091532. Here are links to the individual segments. ABC Science Show, Broadcast 29 October 2022 <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/ukri-funding-rese arch-in-uk/101589234> <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/ukri-funding-rese arch-in-uk/101589234> * UKRI - funding research in the UK 8 minutes <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/geoengineering-no w-urgent/101589282> <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/geoengineering-no w-urgent/101589282> * Geoengineering now urgent 9 minutes <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/cambridge-zero/10 1589316> <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/cambridge-zero/10 1589316> * Cambridge Zero 14 minutes <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/plastic-it-has-be en-accumulating-in-our-oceans-since-the-1950s/101589344> <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/plastic-it-has-be en-accumulating-in-our-oceans-since-the-1950s/101589344> * Plastic - it has been accumulating in our oceans since the 1950s 7 minutes <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/storms-are-changi ng-our-coastlines/101589364> <https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/storms-are-changi ng-our-coastlines/101589364> * Storms are changing our coastlines 9 minutes Here is a transcript of my comments used as the program introduction. "The reality is that climate politics has been pitched as a war between emission reduction and the fossil fuel industry, and the view is that geoengineering is on the side of the fossil fuel industries. So what it has meant is that within the climate science community there is this moral hazard concept, that people say if you take action to geoengineer the climate then you are just failing to address the real issue, which is our emissions. But let me explain. Our annual emissions are about 15 billion tonnes of carbon or 50 billion tonnes of CO2 [equivalent], but the historic emissions are more like 670 billion tonnes of carbon, pushing a trillion tonnes. So our annual emissions only worsen the problem, they add up, it is cumulative. This concept of committed warming from past emissions is really central. We have to see that this 670 billion tonnes of CO2 is what is causing the warming, its what's causing the risk of sea level rise, and until we work out technologies that will remove this vast quantity of past emissions, then cutting our new emissions is really too small, too slow, to really make a difference. It will take us years, decades potentially, to work out how to remove all that committed warming, but we have to do it. The only thing that will stop us going over the edge - there is a great paper from a few years ago by Will Steffen and colleagues from the ANU called Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene, and it points out that we face the risk of going over a threshold into a hothouse - the only thing that will stop us from going over that threshold is brightening the planet through geoengineering." [Note - I don't suggest Steffen et al support geoengineering, only that in my opinion brightening the planet is the only action that can prevent a hothouse phase shift.] My earlier comments that Robin Williams refers to in the interview are at this video - Why Increasing Albedo is More Urgent than Cutting Emissions <https://youtu.be/MzZDDjHYAnk> (16 minutes) Robert Tulip Planetary Restoration Action Group https://planetaryrestoration.net/ -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/024401d8eb4b%2403558340%240a0089c0%24%40rtulip.net.
