Posted on 01/29/2007 11:16:38 AM PST by i_dont_chat
The US wants the world's scientists to develop technology to block sunlight as a last-ditch way to halt global warming.
It says research into techniques such as giant mirrors in space or reflective dust pumped into the atmosphere would be "important insurance" against rising emissions, and has lobbied for such a strategy to be recommended by a UN report on climate change, the first part of which is due out on Friday).
The US has also attempted to steer the UN report, prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), away from conclusions that would support a new worldwide climate treaty based on binding targets to reduce emissions. It has demanded a draft of the report be changed to emphasise the benefits of voluntary agreements and to include criticisms of the Kyoto Protocol, which the US opposes.
The final report, written by experts from across the world, will underpin international negotiations to devise an emissions treaty to succeed Kyoto, the first phase of which expires in 2012. World governments were given a draft of the report last year and invited to comment.
The US response says the idea of interfering with sunlight should be included in the summary for policymakers, the prominent chapter at the front of each panel report. It says: "Modifying solar radiance may be an important strategy if mitigation of emissions fails. Doing the R&D to estimate the consequences of applying such a strategy is important insurance that should be taken out. This is a very important possibility that should be considered."
Scientists have previously estimated that reflecting less than 1 per cent of sunlight back into space could compensate for the warming generated by all greenhouse gases emitted since the industrial revolution. Possible techniques include putting a giant screen into orbit, thousands of tiny, shiny balloons, or microscopic sulfate droplets pumped into the high atmosphere to mimic the cooling effects of a volcanic eruption. The IPCC draft said such ideas were "speculative, uncosted and with potential unknown side-effects".
The US submission complains the draft report is "Kyoto-centric" and it wants to include the work of economists who have reported "the degree to which the Kyoto framework is found wanting".
It also complains that overall "the report tends to overstate or focus on the negative effects of climate change". It also wants more emphasis on responsibilities of the developing world.
But Professor Stephen Schneider, a climate consultant to the US government for more than 30 years and a key figure in the panel process for more than a decade, says the world is "playing Russian roulette" with its future by responding too slowly to climate change.
The panel's draft report shows projections for average global temperature rise from 1990 to 2100 will expand slightly, with a new range of one to 6.3 degrees. The 2001 report's range was 1.4 to 5.8 degrees.
Professor Schneider said he was concerned the increase was more likely to be three degrees or higher, with a 10 per cent chance of a six-degree rise by the end of the century.
"Hell, we buy fire insurance based on a 1 per cent chance," he said. "If we're going to be risk averse … we cannot dismiss the possibility of potentially catastrophic outliers and that includes Greenland and West Antarctica [ice sheets breaking up], massive species extinctions, intensified hurricanes and all those things. "There's at least a 10 per cent chance of that. And that to me for a society is too high a risk … My value judgement when you're talking about planetary life support systems is that 10 per cent, my God, that's Russian roulette with a Luger."
Interfering with CO2 emissions is intended to manage the climate, though passively and expensively. Managing Earth's reflectivity with cloud control is a cheaper and more active technology, with the advantage of being more localized, safe, and nontoxic.
We should fund experiments to build up our toolbox of climate management methods, especially local scope technologies that do not need UN oversight. But we shouldn't actually meddle with the climate until we need to address real vs. hypothetical problems. Currently global warming is so tiny it can only be detected by making millions of temperature readings over many years and analyzing them with statistics. It is so small it is beyond human perception.
Science catching up with myth, huh? ;>
That's really very good odds. If the first round isn't live, there's a 100% chance that it won't fire at all.
Oh yeah, thousands of tiny balloons will do the job. What are these people smoking?
Years ago I read an AP story which reported the remains of an ancient goldmine in central Africa. Testing showed the timbers to be at least 245,000 years old. Also kept an clipping of a story reporting the existence of a very large hunk of gold, some platinum, (larger than a football field) orbiting in the asteroid belt.
Interesting how those numbers support Zachariah's writing. Even so, it's hard to get too worked up about things that happen in time spans that are multiples of your own expected lifespan.
Heck, anybody can block out the sun just by holding their thumb up to it. Bunch of idiots.
With all of the suckers that believe in it I should be wealthy beyond my dreams. Might as well cash in while I can.
No, the GW cult emphatically rejects that the sun is the cause of anything, that's why they react to ideas like the one proposed in the article by putting their fingers in their ears and saying "la la la, I can't hear you."
So is a 'shar' one year or 3,600 years?
It's not nice to fool with mother nature......
How do you play Russian roulette with a Luger? Don't you need a revolver?
These idiots are so busy rewriting history they've forgotten the lessons of the mini-ice age and how it affected the world clear up until the mid-1800's.
Oh like dude.....the toasting (aka nukin') of Iran will take care of global warming. With respect....doods.
3600 earth years. A single orbit of "Niburu" through the solar system.
>>>A defective mirror? What's that? You look up into the sky and see Algor or Laurie David looking back?>>>
HA!!
>>>Oh, deflective...>>>
Thanks for correcting my type. Sometimes I get so caught up in the stupidity of mankind, my fingers rebel.
And an execution warrant for Mother Gaia.
God controls mother nature.
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