House Science and Technology Committee streaming video

[Ken Caldeira]

Folks,

I've been waiting for the transcript of the Nov 5 House Science and Technology Committee's hearing on geoengineering to come out, so I could re-enact just the questions with my class as either a civics lesson or an example of self-parody. Unfortunately, the transcript is apparently still not available.

Although I would imagine it would be somewhat painful to watch, for those who cannot wait for a transcript, there is streaming video of the hearing available at:  http://science.edgeboss.net/wmedia/science/scitech09/110509.wvx

I think the most interesting line of questioning was (to paraphrase): "Why should a cattle rancher in Nebraska care about this?"

At the time it seemed like self-parody, but the more I think about it the more I realize it is a quite sensible question. If we cannot clearly and compellingly explain why the average citizen should want to invest tax dollars in researching climate intervention options, we will not be performing our public communication roles adequately. (I think the second time I tried to answer this question, I was closer to the mark.)

Best,

Ken

PS. Interested persons who are not gluttons for punishment might better wait for the transcript.


___________________________________________________
Ken Caldeira

Carnegie Institution Dept of Global Ecology
260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305 USA

kcal...@ciw.edu; kcal...@stanford.edu
http://dge.stanford.edu/DGE/CIWDGE/labs/caldeiralab
+1 650 704 7212; fax: +1 650 462 5968  

[Mike MacCracken]

One part of my answer would have been to describe how the warming of the Arctic is changing the air masses and weather being experienced in Nebraska. Without a frozen Arctic, no Siberian Express weather types. That may sound good, but it is the outflow from the Arctic of very cold air masses that keeps the moist tropical air down near the Gulf coast instead of causing 2-foot December snows in North Dakota, a January tornado in Wisconsin (and basically allowing a northward shift of the tornado belt), and heavier precipitation in the northern Great Plains where the river channels can’t handle it and so flood. And with the continent not really chilling in the winter, it warms faster in the spring, and dries out faster (and the summer cold fronts don’t make it very far into the US, so are less able to trigger the needed precipitation from summer thunderstorms over the coastal plain east of the Appalachians.

And then there is what climate change is going to do to the Mississippi Delta—eating it away, and more often requiring shutdown of the river barge traffic that takes the grain the farmer in Nebraska grows to markets around the world.

Quite clearly, climate change is going to have big effects on Nebraska. So, limiting or reversing climate change generally, or even just re-icing the Arctic or moderating hurricane intensification, would have a beneficial effect for the farmer in Nebraska.

Best, Mike

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[M V Bhaskar]

Continuation of my previous post that was incomplete …

Thus a solution has to be found to deal with this unintended
consequence of use of fertilizers and damming of rivers.

The phytoplankton balance appears to have changed over the years
leading to the formation of dead zones.
Cyanobacteria and Dinoflagellates are dominating instead of Diatoms.

Ocean Iron Fertilization deals only with use of Iron in deep seas
containing silicic acid, however there is a need to discuss the use of
fertilization to set right the phytoplankton balance in fresh water.

Fresh water fertilization would require use of silica in addition to
Iron to cause a bloom of Diatom Algae.

This is the solution we have developed in our nano micro nutrient
powder in which both silica and iron are delivered in a biologically
available form in nano size particles.

Best regards

Bhaskar
www.kadambari.net

[M V Bhaskar]

Another possible answer is that the farmer in Nebraska is as much
responsible for Global warming as a coal fired power plant or a oil
refinery.
Problems created by construction of dams across rivers and use of
fertilizers contributes to global warming.
Dams reduce flow of silt into the oceans and irrigation and more
farming increase the flow of Nitrogen and Phosphorus.
The combined effect of this is the increase in harmful algal blooms in
rivers, lakes and coastal waters.

Phytoplankton are supposed to be major contributors of Oxygen and
hence absorbers of CO2, but the increasing number of Fish Kills in
fresh waters and Dead Zones in estuaries and oceans is an indicator
that blooms of phytoplankton is actually reducing oxygen and
increasing CO2 and perhaps increasing methane emissions as well.

Why are the number of Dead Zones increasing and what is the impact of
these on Global Warming.

http://www.earth-stream.com/outpage.php?s=18&id=188819

The "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico is one example. Nitrogen-
based fertilizers make their way from Iowa [Nebraska?] cornfields to
the Mississippi River, where
they are transported to the Gulf of Mexico. Once deposited in the
Gulf, nitrogen stimulates algal blooms.