Group Seeks Test For Geoengineering Tool To Fight Climate Change

An anonymous reader writes: A group of retired engineers and scientists has been meeting for several years to develop techniques to fight climate change. They've now reached the point where they want to actively test a machine that shoots water droplets into the sky in order to supplement existing clouds and increase the planet's albedo. The group is not aiming for full deployment — in fact, it's not even unanimous in support for prevailing theories in climate science. But they all agree that it's important to learn about such technologies before the situation becomes a crisis. "We need to understand whether this approach is even possible and what the risks are, in the event that we find ourselves looking for ways to extend time and mitigate warming damage."

If we're eventually forced to deploy large-scale geoengineering projects to combat climate change, it's not a good idea to grab whatever technology is cheapest or most readily available without knowing how well it works. The group is aware of the ethical concerns surrounding such research, but its director notes, "The fact is humanity is already engaged in unplanned climate engineering. We're doing it through coal plant and shipping emissions every day without understanding it very well."

Comments

Re:Same agencies.

[Penguinisto]

Nobody is asking for governmental control... they're asking to perform an experiment. Geez.

In all seriousness, I like that they're just looking at the technology, and studiously avoiding any attempt to take a political side in any of this. There are practical applications for this in the macro sense that have approximately bupkis to do with the whole debate, after all.

How is it that anyone supports this?

[Rei]

* Does absolutely nothing to prevent ocean acidification
* Provides only masking - if they ever stop (lack of funding, discovery of profound negative consequences, or whatever), all the warming that they've been hiding comes rushing back
* They're just as likely to increase temperatures by increasing IR reflectance as they are to decrease it by increasing albedo. The least well understood aspect of the planet's climate, by a large margin, is clouds; they make up the vast majority of the error bars in the IPCC projections.
* There's a whole raft of staggeringly huge potential downstream disruptions, many of which could increase the problem - for example, reduction of photosynthesis.

I'm actually a moderate to slightly pro-geoengineering. But this is one of the dumbest geoengineering ideas out there. No, I don't think it's worth even wasting the money to try, that money should go to other more worthwhile projects.

sincere skepticism.

[nimbius]

climate change is the manifestation of the global use of fossil fuels at an unprecedented rate, releasing millions of tons of greenhouse gasses. in Cloud Reflectivity Modification, these devices being proposed would also contribute to global warming in that they are, in models, driven by plane and ships. I support the science. we need to learn more about how this affects or impacts a controlled environment. but to insinuate its somehow going to solve a problem of this magnitude is sophomoric on a number of levels, not the least of which economic.

Easier more practical solutions like alternative energy and curbing emissions in the first place are a better application of the finite resources we have to address climate change. To expound upon the articles premise, If we're eventually forced to deploy large-scale geoengineering projects to combat climate change, its already too late.