Geoengineering Earth's Climate

Google Tech Talks
January, 7 2008

Emergency preparedness is generally considered to be a good thing, yet there is no plan regarding what we might do should we be faced with a climate emergency. Such an emergency could take the form of a rapid shift in precipitation patterns, a collapse of the great ice sheets, the imminent triggering of strong climate system feedbacks, or perhaps the loss of valuable ecosystems.

Over the past decade, we have used climate models to investigate the potential to reverse some of the effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by deflecting some incoming sunlight back to space. This would probably be most cost-effectively achieved with the placement of small particles in or above the stratosphere. Our model simulations indicate that such geoengineering approaches could potentially bring our climate closer to the state is was in prior to the introduction of greenhouse gases.

This talk will present much of what is known about such geoengineering approaches, and raise a range of issues likely to stimulate lively discussion.

Speaker: Ken Caldeira
Ken Caldeira is a scientist at the Carnegie Institution Department of Global Ecology and a Professor (by courtesy) at the Stanford University Department of Environmental and Earth System Sciences. Previously, he worked for 12 years in the Energy and Environment Directorate at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Department of Energy). His research interests include the numerical simulation of Earth's climate, carbon, and biogeochemistry; ocean acidification; climate emergency response systems; evaluating approaches to supplying environmentally-friendly energy services; ocean carbon sequestration; long-term evolution of climate and geochemical cycles; and marine biogeochemical cycles. Caldeira has a B.A. in Philosophy from Rutgers College and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from New York University.

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[mphello]

Any talk about geo-engineering (or engineering of any kind) that doesn't mention the word ENTROPY somewhere, let alone do a serious calculation of it, is worthless bullshit.

By the 2nd Law of Thermo, geoengineering can NEVER be as good as simply preventing the CO2 going into the atmosphere in the first place.

Stop having kids. Go vegan. And mandate both by law. Outlaw coal. Solar and wind ONLY for electricity. BOOM! Problem solved.

[BestZaros]

Booooo. the whole solar system is heating up dummy. cant stand these global warming douches.

[adriftingspiral2]

Well somebody has been funding it for about 2 decades........This has been overhead since the 1990's..Thanks for asking the rest of us how we felt about it..

[meushubris]

Fuck you google and fuck geoengeering fans. fuck you dolphin and fuck you whale

[Technoscribe]

Hmmm... let's think. What is the most environmentally sensitive thing to do?

Risk the arctic,

or

risk the planet?

The planet..... the arctic. The PLANET!>the arctic.

[Technoscribe]

0.O "&£*(*"&!&^"%£%&&"!&^"&!!!!!!!

If a human gets insufficient sunlight it causes vitamin D deficiencies which in turn lead to clinical depression. Humans are organisms. Humans are not among the MOST sensitive organisms to sunlight. If one artificially alters the amount of sunlight that hits the entire earth that CANNOT be good for a large number of organisms. The harm to biodiversity is potentially catastrophic! >.< Bloody Hell.

[BlueBloodTasty]

Putting chemicals in the sky contaminates the air we breathe & the water we drink. There are other power resources that we could use on this planet but the corporations/governments are not pushing these. Instead they want to add more taxes, keep the fear machine spinning and keep us enslaved. No more! 

[honestTom333]

google - the times chemical tests wiltshire

Do you really think things change?? If so I call that bloody naive

I have the patents for geo-engineering on my channel (welsbach cloud seeding)

I live in Wiltshire and the summer just gone I was sun bathing in my garden when 2 planes flew above me deposited spray then 5-10 minutes later a different type of plane flew through the trails and let 2 yellow weather ballons out the back 1 moved rather rapidly and other far slower I call that a test

[GimmeSomeTruth1971]

Geo-engineering experiments are contaminating Mt. Shasta with aluminum. Not cool.

[toez100]

their is no delicate balance? Please let me know of the other planets you know of with abundant life and I'll reconsider my thoughts. The multitude of conditions required to have eventually led us here, two people communicating over the net are staggering. I'm not trying to start an argument here i just don't agree with you and think we have a totally different picture of the world