The Oil Drum | Technology moves us forward and should be recognized

133 comments on Technology moves us forward and should be recognized

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JD on May 17, 2008 - 7:22pm

The earth will continue to warm for the next 150 years, even if we halt all fossil fuel burning tomorrow:

In fact, the world's leading scientists agree that it's already too late to halt global warming entirely. "We can't prevent some damage," says Stephen Schneider, co-director of the Center for Environmental Science and Policy at Stanford University. Even if we were to magically end CO2 emissions tomorrow, the gases that we've already unleashed will continue to raise temperatures for another 150 years. "That's unpreventable," Schneider says.Source

The solution (combined with other measures of course) is geoengineering. Many leading climate scientists now support geoengineering, including Paul Crutzen, Tom Wigley and Ken Caldeira. For example, see ALBEDO ENHANCEMENT BY STRATOSPHERIC SULFUR INJECTIONS: A CONTRIBUTION TO RESOLVE A POLICY DILEMMA?(pdf).

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ccpo on May 17, 2008 - 11:15pm

Sure! Because the climate system is so resilient we can just mess with it at will!

This is a very dangerous and, imho, foolish way to go. Let's just live differently and get the same results without the unknown feedbacks.

Cheers

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geek7 on May 18, 2008 - 12:47pm

"The (emphasis added) solution (combined with other measures of course) is geoengineering."

I strongly disagree. Geoengineering is not the solution, but a class of proposed solutions, none of which have been validated by any means excepting hype. I think nature will heal itself. It's not clear what size population of homo will remain after the healing. Geoengineering likely will have unintended consequences that will make problems much worse, and healing much slower.

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eric blair on May 19, 2008 - 1:31pm

The solution is geoengineering.

Sure it is 'john denver'.

Odds are your 'vision' of what geoengineering is is far different than mine - but hey - you won't be around to see the results of your plan, so why should you care?

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133 comments on Technology moves us forward and should be recognized

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