Climate change - week four (4.2)

The feedback video from Prof Tim and the team was especially useful this week.  A really good explanation of the warming and cooling effects of different types of clouds led into a discussion of geo-engineering and carbon capture.  For the first time in this course, the ethical, economic and political aspects of climate change came to the surface, with the Professors making it clear that geo-engineering needs to be researched and discussed... but that only a massive reduction in the amount of carbon we are emitting is a long term-solution to global warming.

The storage of carbon, either in underground carbon reservoirs, or by making biochar* is a way of reducing the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere, as well as 'capturing' and storing the carbon currently being emitted from fossil fuel-burning power stations etc.  Carbon can also be 'stored' in the sea, via an accelerated version of the natural 'weathering' process.  The problem with all these ideas is that while they are technically very feasible and practical, they are expensive, and there are currently no incentives to do them. 

The more 'hi-tech' interventions - such as cloud-'seeding' to increase the albedo of clouds thus increasing their cooling effect, or mimicking the effects of volcanoes by spreading reflective particles into the atmosphere - are even more expensive, and have an added disadvantage:  if they are seen on their own as a solution  to counteract the 'blanket' effect of ever rising carbon emissions, and we don't do anything to reduce those emissions, sooner or later the geo-engineering would fail to keep pace, and we would see a very sudden and possibly catastrophic increase in the greenhouse/blanket effect and in global temperatures. 

The Profs are absolutely right to raise these ethical, economic and political issues - because any decisions by individuals, corporations and governments to take action on climate change are based on combinations of these issues.


* Biochar = charcoal, created by pyrolysis of biomass. It has the potential to help mitigate climate change, via carbon sequestration.  It also  increases agricultural productivity, is stable can endure in the soil for thousands of years.