Geoengineering seminar, House of Commons, London, 15th July

[John Nissen]

Event details here:
http://www.iom3.org/events/geo-engineering-challenges-and-global-impacts

I fear that the potential side-effects of geoengineering (especially use of stratospheric aerosols) will be overstated, as they generally are by the media.  So I sincerely hope Dr Gadian and Dr Watson will not understate the potentially short-term global impact from not geoengineering:

• impact of Arctic warming (esp. methane release and Greenland ice sheet disintegration) if solar radiation management (SRM) is not used to cool the Arctic;
  
• impact of increased CO2 (esp. global warming and ocean acidification) if CO2 air capture is not used to reduce its level below 350 ppm.
  

BTW, I've just heard from Professor Shepherd that the Royal Society study on geoengineering is due out on Sept 1st, but will not include anything about using SRM specifically to cool the Arctic.

Cheers from Chiswick,

John

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The Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and The Royal Academy of
Engineering invite you to attend a seminar entitled:

Geo-engineering: Challenges and global impacts

To be held at Portcullis House, the House of Commons
15 July 2009
Tea and coffee at 6:00pm.
The seminar will commence at 6.30pm and will be followed by refreshments at 8.15pm.

The speakers at the seminar will be:
Dr Alan Gadian, University of Leeds
Talk: Cloud albedo modification
Dr Dan Lunt, University of Bristol
Talk: Sunshade engineering
Prof. Andrew Watson, University of East Anglia
Talk: Ocean fertilisation
Prof. Steve Rayner, University of Oxford
Talk: Social and ethical implications of geo-engineering
Chair
Dr Brian Iddon MP, the House of Commons


Geo-engineering offers the potential to protect the Earth’s ecosphere from the worst effects
of climate change. This protection may only be temporary and, in some cases, mask the
effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions rather than tackling the root cause.

Nevertheless, with growing doubt as to the ability, or willingness, of world economies to
meet the stringent cuts in emissions required, geo-engineering could become politically
attractive to buy more time for those deep cuts to be made.

This seminar will discuss a number of imaginative technologies that have been suggested to
modify the Earth’s albedo or sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide, which could be
sufficient to offset, in part, the effect of greenhouse gas emissions. These include dispersing
sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere to mimic global dimming, using a swarm of picosatellites
in space to reflect sunlight, and ocean fertilisation to encourage the growth of
marine microorganisms which can capture carbon dioxide. The seminar will explore whether
these techniques will have any unintended consequences (e.g. releasing sulphate aerosols
into the atmosphere may cause droughts), how they need to be developed and analysed for
risk potential, and whether altering the Earth’s climate system will ever be socially
acceptable. The scale of the interventions required will also be of concern as well as the full
life-cycle costs of proposals.

This seminar is the latest in a series demonstrating key routes by which contemporary
physics, chemistry and engineering will affect life in the 21st century.

The Institute of Physics is a scientific charity devoted to increasing the practice,
understanding and application of physics. It has a worldwide membership of over 36 000
and is a leading communicator of physics-related science to all audiences, from specialists
through to government and the general public. Its publishing company, IOP Publishing, is a
world leader in scientific publishing and the electronic dissemination of physics.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is the largest organisation in Europe for advancing the
chemical sciences. Supported by a worldwide network of members and an international
publishing business, our activities span education, conferences, science policy and the
promotion of chemistry to the public.

The Royal Academy of Engineering is Britain’s national academy for engineering, bringing
together the country’s most eminent engineers from all disciplines to promote excellence in
the science, art and practice of engineering. Its strategic priorities are to enhance the UK’s
engineering capabilities, to celebrate excellence and inspire the next generation, and to
lead debate by guiding informed thinking and influencing public policy.

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[Veli Albert Kallio]

Dear All,
 
I would also like to emphasise the importance that each year now is sort of record in the Arctic Ocean:
 
2007: remaining sea ice area 4.13 million km2 was 40% less than normal North Pole Sea Ice Cap. North West passage open 1st year.
 
2008: remaining sea ice volume and multi-year sea ice decreased to its all-time minimum. North West and North East Passages open simultaneously 1st year. Possible methane clatrate explosion heard on North West Passage several hundreds of kilometres away. Methane from sea beds and permaforst were both seen rising also on Russian coast and Spitzbergen where these had been studied. (See listed below with relevant links.)

2009: periphery melting of sea ice on record levels on Siberian and Alascan coast and around Greenland, probably second year possible to circumnavigate North Pole this summer.
 
With kind regads,
 
Veli Albert Kallio, FRGS
 
Frozen Isthmuses' Protection Campaign
of the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans
 
 
There is urgency to do geoengineering because of these methane clathrate explosions and leakages now occurring.  Please note that sulphur emissions have been reduced from Kola Peninsula and currently SO2 emissions are being reduced in Taimyr peninsula where 500,000 inhabitant Norilsk heavy metal industries are based in Northernmost Siberia.
 
Important is to avoid high localised concentrations of sulphur oxide that produces localised acidification, thus the hight and location out are very important and I would like to have our partner Atmosmare from Finland participating in major Arctic geoengineering projects.

 

Current Methane Leaking Events per Region:

 

 

1. Nunavut Archipelago, Canada (the NW Passage) - Sea Bed Explosions:

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=689eefec-7d76-427e-b594-9504ee9ffe74&k=4938

 

 

 

2. East Siberian and Laptev Seas (Russia):

 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/008702.html

 

 

 

3. The Swalbard, Norway (the Fram Straight):

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/hundreds-of-methane-plumes-discovered-941456.html

 
 
Here is the link passed my colleague Larry Donovan from our FIPC Edmonton office:
 
"Military probes mystery of whale deaths"

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=689eefec-7d76-427e-b594-9504ee9ffe74&k=4938

It is obviously too early to draw conclusions, because the North West passage melted second year in a row 06/08/2008, and as it has never been regularly open (actually it had melted only once before some years ago), I think it is far more likely that it is methane clathrate or meteorite fall, than the Russian navy doing some secret explosion expriments in a Canadian territory as suggested by some. 
 
When Kursk blew up, it was a quite event, but Russia has so much coast, I don't think they blow things in Canada.  It just does not make any sense, Canadian's say it was not their submarine.
 

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Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 16:37:43 +0100
From: j...@cloudworld.co.uk
To: geoengi...@googlegroups.com
CC: john....@foe.co.uk; al...@env.leeds.ac.uk; john_g_...@mac.com; Robert...@uea.ac.uk; d.j....@bristol.ac.uk; Brian....@manchester.ac.uk; ke...@ucalgary.ca; idd...@parliament.uk; steve....@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Subject: [geo] Geoengineering seminar, House of Commons, London, 15th July

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[Peter Read]

It is extremely disappointing to me that Biosphere Carbon Stock Management (BCSM) is not on the agenda

 

It provides the only practicable way of getting carbon out of the atmosphere while facilitating rapid reductions in emissions through substituting sustainably sourced biomass for fossil fuels.  

 

Decarbonizing is pie in the sky fostered by energy interests who want to put off change by a generation

 

Defossilizing (already taking place unsustainably in face of 'peak oil') can be accelerated, and subjected to sustainability conditions, tomorrow. 

 

There is no shortage of land but a great shortage of investment in land, as demonstrated by Len Ornstein and colleagues who show in an upcoming article in Climatic Change that desalinating seawater to irrigate the Sahara Desert for fast growing commercial forestry removes CO2 at lower cost than CCS.  The current policy-fixation with reducing fossil fuel emissions to the neglect of all other options is economic madness, adaptationally callous and environmentally perverse. 

 

Furthermore it imposes burden sharing on developing countries that are not historically responsible for the problem, whereas BCSM enmables them to gain from trade, exporting carbon credits and biofuels to industrialized countries.

 

I attach the 'springboard editorial comment' that I have been invited to provide for publication with Ornstein's two articles.  My earlier editorial essay on Biosphere Carbon Stock Management is available at http://www.springerlink.com/content/rt798740226381q8/fulltext.pdf  

 

Peter

----- Original Message -----

From: John Nissen

To: Geoengineering

Cc: John Davies ; Alan Gadain ; John Shepherd ; Watson Robert Prof (ENV) ; Dan Lunt ; Brian....@manchester.ac.uk ; ke...@ucalgary.ca ; Brian Iddon ; Steve Rayner

Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 3:37 AM

Subject: [geo] Geoengineering seminar, House of Commons, London, 15th July

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