Geoengineering projects around the world - map

[bananas]

A thread from the geoengineering mailing list: https://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering/browse_thread/thread/c0979500230af69d?hl=en

Andrew Lockley Jul 17, 7:36 am

Geoengineering projects around the world - map

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/graphic/2012/jul/17/geoengineer...

ETC Group has produced a world map of geoengineering that represents the
first attempt to document the expanding scope of research and
experimentation in the large-scale manipulation of Earth or climate systems

[e-mail] Jul 17, 6:37 pm

Andrew, list - and adding Jonathan Ward (who later today noted the same map).

I somehow (as I have earlier) got to the original ETC site today instead of this Guardian version - see
http://www.etcgroup.org/issues/climate-geoengineering

The best part of this site is a huge array of valuable URLs for all the entries - much more valuable than the map.

This (only? one at the ETC site) geoengineering map is very different - having scores of entries for several technologies (especially Biochar) that are not on the Guardian version.

Can anyone give an explanation why there are two such very different maps?

Ron

[joshcryer]

1. Hmm, are they excluding geoengineering thanks to CO2 and methane pollution?

[bananas]

2. Cool graphic from the ETC site

[Nihil]

3. FWIW, if anyone wants to get to the Guardian link in the OP ...

... you will need to use the following (as the extract truncated the link):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/graphic/2012/jul/17/geoengineering-world-map

I think that the ETC site will absorb quite a bit of my time in the near future - thanks!

[kristopher]

4. Interesting approach to data gathering

Prior research has always suffered from an inability to gather good data on the quantity sequestered. This approach is still weak, but it gives us something to work with as far as knowing what might be possible.

Geo-engineering is a fraught with the risk of unintended consequences, but this particular approach seems relatively benign to me if it can be accomplished in a co2st effective manner.

Perhaps I just don't know enough about the project below (I'm pretty familiar with the variables in the ocean fertilizing approach) but as it is, I don't feel at all comfortable with doing this on a large scale.

US geoengineers to spray sun-reflecting chemicals from balloon
Experiment in New Mexico will try to establish the possibility of cooling the planet by dispersing sulphate aerosols


Two Harvard engineers are to spray sun-reflecting chemical particles into the atmosphere to artificially cool the planet, using a balloon flying 80,000 feet over Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

The field experiment in solar geoengineering aims to ultimately create a technology to replicate the observed effects of volcanoes that spew sulphates into the stratosphere, using sulphate aerosols to bounce sunlight back to space and decrease the temperature of the Earth.

David Keith, one of the investigators, has argued that solar geoengineering could be an inexpensive method to slow down global warming, but other scientists warn that it could have unpredictable, disastrous consequences for the Earth's weather systems and food supplies. Environmental groups fear that the push to make geoengineering a "plan B" for climate change will undermine efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

Keith, who manages a multimillion dollar geoengineering research fund provided by Microsoft founder Bill Gates...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/17/us-geoengineers-spray-sun-balloon