US climate scientists are about to support research into geo-engineering, according to New Scientist. The magazine says a final draft of the American Meteorological position paper on the subject endorses further research on manipulating the earth’s environment to counteract the effect of CO2 emissions, making it the first major scientific body to do so. Read more…
A new study has determined that though an artificially ‘geoengineered’ global sunscreen would lower the planet’s temperature by a few degrees, it won’t stop the acidification of the world oceans that threatens coral reefs and other marine life.
The culprit is atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), which even in a cooler globe will continue to be absorbed by seawater, creating acidic conditions. Read more…
The most interesting application for climate geo-engineering might be to overcome the next ice age. Milankovich astronomical theory and also the experience of the last 2 million years suggest that the current interglacial period (Holocene) will soon come to an end and that the earth will soon enter into another glaciation.
Alarms of an imminent ice age have been raised from time to time, for example in the 1970s after a prolonged period of climatecooling, and even more recently as the climate cooled slightly in the past few years. One needs to distinguish, however, between a Little Ice Age that may be part of a more-or-less regular 1,500-year cycle (and likely related to solar activity) and a true ice agethat relates to a change in solar irradiance brought about by changes in earth’s orbit, axis inclination and precession. Read more…