Comments on: Geoengineering: Are we grown up enough to handle it?

By: Geoengineering the climate: A clear perspective from The Royal Society

Geoengineering the climate: A clear perspective from The Royal Society — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:01:01 +0000

[...] Geoengineering: Are we grown up enough to handle it? [...]

By: Geo engineering and climate change « FrogHeart

Geo engineering and climate change « FrogHeart — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:04:45 +0000

[...] I’ve read other pieces by Cascio and find him to be a very thoughtful writer so I’m inclined to pay attention when he writes about something. From what I can gather after reading his article, geoengineering needs to be seriously considered now that climate change is rapidly approaching a crisis/tipping point. (Others may disagree with whether or not we are having a crisis but that’s another discussion.) We have not sufficiently decreased the amount of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere thereby allowing us to reverse the changes currently taking place. Cascio is proposing that we consider geoengineering not as a solution to too much carbon being released but as a stopgap (breathing space) while we seriously address the issues. You can read Cascio’s article here and you can read Andrew Maynard’s comments about it here. [...]

By: Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:38:14 +0000

I think whichever way you look at the problem, we’re going to have to work out how to make social and political decisions that aren’t dominated by narrow mindedness, unenlightened self-interest, and short term-ism. This could be tricky…

Despite the attacks on Cascio’s piece, he wasn’t saying anything that other highly respected scientists and analysts haven’t said before him – he just happened to be at the sharp end on this occasion.

And while I may not agree with him on every point, I do believe that civil discussion and debate is important, and should be encouraged.

By: R Subramanian

R Subramanian — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:36:16 +0000

By the way, I was at an NSF workshop today on atmospheric sciences (rather, the facilities NSF has, though NCAR etc. for atmospheric research.) A big concern that kept coming up was methane, and the release from hydrates as the permafrost melts. Maybe cooling the poles may not be such a bad idea.
More to the point, though – buying some time seems good, but all it might do is give political folks cover to kick the problem down the road. “We don’t need to increase vehicle mileage by 100%, just 20% is enough (in my term)!” and so on and so forth.

By: R Subramanian

R Subramanian — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:31:00 +0000

Andrew:
You are a brave man indeed for attempting to support Cascio in the WSJ comments section – almost as brave as Cascio himself! In fact, Cascio’s piece must feel very lonely in the WSJ op-ed pages, which are usually filled with Conservative BS.
I sometimes regret that Al Gore ever got involved in global warming. Folks who hated the Clinton administration just carried their hatred over to Gore’s pet project. Sad.

By: Andrew Maynard

Andrew Maynard — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:42:22 +0000

Guess I am more naive than I thought – I was shocked at the responses to Jamais’ piece in the WSJ. Hope they are not representative of society at large…

By: Ruth Seeley

Ruth Seeley — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:53:13 +0000

The ad hominem attacks on Cascio’s piece – including puns on his first name – and the rudeness of one commenter in particular were quite the eye opener until I did a little research – at which point I discovered the leader of the pack doesn’t think the Wall Street Journal should publish photos of the current US president (on grounds that he might have shaken hands with a ‘socialist’ I gather).

My concern is that we are going to run out of time to implement a solution because we remain too busy bickering about which is the best one – with equally vociferous groups promoting their own answer and no possibility of consensus. And frankly, having participated in some decision-making by consensus, I’m not sure a simple majority vote doesn’t have a better result.