What is the definition of geoengineering?

[Bill Fulkerson]

Dear Group:
What techniques are included in geoengineering as a strategy for managing climate change?  If ocean fertilization is geoengineering (apparently IPCC 4th had that view) what about growing new forests and insuring they are not cut down?  I have always thought that aforestation is a mitigation approach.  What about extracting carbon directly from the atmosphere artificially as suggested by Klaus Lackner and others.
I would like to see a good definition for geoengineering.  If one exists and is agreed upon what is it?  If one doesn’t why shouldn’t this group propose one?  It may be useful to have fuzzy boundaries, but I would prefer some clarity for all three strategies that may be useful for managing climate change, i.e. mitigation, adaptation and geoengineering.
The best,
Bill
Bill Fulkerson, Senior Fellow
Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment
University of Tennessee
311 Conference Center Bldg.
Knoxville, TN 37996-4138
wf...@utk.edu <mailto:wf...@utk.edu>
865-974-9221, -1838 FAX
Home
865-988-8084 
2781 Wheat Road, Lenoir City, TN 37771

[Ken Caldeira]

Bill,

The problem is that there is no one definition, there are many definitions and there is no right and wrong.

Typically, people lump into geoengineering things that they don't like and exclude things they do like (except for those few oddballs who actually like geoengineering).

Unfortunately, I think we are in the state where anybody who uses the term in a technical paper needs to define how they are using it.

Personally, I define geoengineering like this:

Geoengineering is the alteration of the shortwave side of Earth's energy budget at large scale with the intent of affecting climate.

Best,

Ken

--
===============================
Ken Caldeira
Department of Global Ecology
Carnegie Institution
260 Panama Street
Stanford, CA 94305 USA
+1 650 704 7212; fax: +1 650 462 5968

kcal...@stanford.edu

http://globalecology.stanford.edu/DGE/CIWDGE/home/main%20page/caldeira.php

[Seth Baum]

Note that "geoengineering" is hardly alone in having an ambiguous definition.  For example, "vulnerability" or "dangerous (climate change)".  "Vulnerability" even has a modest literature just on how the word is defined- see for example
Adger, W. N., 2006: "Vulnerability". Global Environmental Change, 16, 268–281.

Even "mitigation" and "adaptation" mean different things outside the climate change community.  For example, in natural hazards, mitigation is conducted after the hazard, whereas in climate change, mitigation is conducted before the hazard (i.e. before the climate change).  I'm told that IPCC AR2 initiated our current definitions of "mitigation" and "adaptation" and that AR3 solidified them.

So I also recommend that "geoengineering" be defined where used until there is a strong consensus definition, which might take something like an IPCC discussion to happen and also might never happen.

 -Seth

[Alvia Gaskill]

Agreed that given the ambiguous and fluid nature of this area of
research it is important to define it when used. However, Ken has
defined solar radiation management, a subset of geoengineering. Geo
should also include the deliberate alteration of the longwave budget
as proposed in OIF, large scale afforestation and air capture. The
general definition should encompass any technology proposed or applied
for the purpose of global climate alteration. This includes changing
of ocean currents as well as proposals to redirect cold water from the
depths to the surface and any large scale sequestration of harvested
biomass to prevent oxidation to CO2.

Geoengineering was originally coined as a term describing how billions
of tons of CO2 would be captured and disposed of in the oceans or
underground, but now has become synonymous with any technologies
proposed to reduce the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gas
emissions without reducing the emissions from their source. The goal
of geoengineering is to "engineer" a climate that is more favorable to
humans than the one already in place or that may occur in the future.

I think when afforestation becomes geoengineering is the scale
involved and what was there before. If one proposes to protect all
the trees in the rain forest in Costa Rica, that is not geo, nor is
replanting trees in a relatively small area that man has deforested.
However, if the goal is to revegetate the Sahara, which is essentially
devoid of vegetation now, that would be considered geoengineering,
even though it could be argued it is being done for other reasons as
well.

If the scale criterion is to be applied "globally," then field trials
of OIF are not geoengineering, since their impact will not be felt
outside a small area, but they are attempts at demonstrating such a
technology can be used on a large scale.

On Jan 29, 10:21 am, "Ken Caldeira"

<kcalde...@globalecology.stanford.edu> wrote:
> Bill,
>
> The problem is that there is no one definition, there are many definitions
> and there is no right and wrong.
>
> Typically, people lump into geoengineering things that they don't like and
> exclude things they do like (except for those few oddballs who actually like
> geoengineering).
>
> Unfortunately, I think we are in the state where anybody who uses the term
> in a technical paper needs to define how they are using it.
>
> Personally, I define geoengineering like this:
>

> *Geoengineering is the alteration of the shortwave side of Earth's energy

> budget at large scale with the intent of affecting climate.

> *

> Best,
>
> Ken
>
> On Jan 29, 2008 6:46 AM, Bill Fulkerson <wf...@utk.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> >  Dear Group:
> > What techniques are included in geoengineering as a strategy for managing
> > climate change?  If ocean fertilization is geoengineering (apparently IPCC
> > 4th had that view) what about growing new forests and insuring they are not
> > cut down?  I have always thought that aforestation is a mitigation approach.
> >  What about extracting carbon directly from the atmosphere artificially as
> > suggested by Klaus Lackner and others.
> > I would like to see a good definition for geoengineering.  If one exists
> > and is agreed upon what is it?  If one doesn't why shouldn't this group
> > propose one?  It may be useful to have fuzzy boundaries, but I would prefer
> > some clarity for all three strategies that may be useful for managing
> > climate change, i.e. mitigation, adaptation and geoengineering.
> > The best,
> > Bill
> > Bill Fulkerson, Senior Fellow
> > Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment
> > University of Tennessee
> > 311 Conference Center Bldg.
> > Knoxville, TN 37996-4138

> > wf...@utk.edu <mailto:wf...@utk.edu> <wf...@utk.edu>

> > 865-974-9221, -1838 FAX
> > Home
> > 865-988-8084
> > 2781 Wheat Road, Lenoir City, TN 37771
>
> --
> ===============================
> Ken Caldeira
> Department of Global Ecology
> Carnegie Institution
> 260 Panama Street
> Stanford, CA 94305 USA
> +1 650 704 7212; fax: +1 650 462 5968
>

> kcalde...@stanford.edu
>
> http://globalecology.stanford.edu/DGE/CIWDGE/home/main%20page/caldeir...- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Nick Woolf]

Beyond climate!

Change of even one aspect of the environment
is a change of the system.

Nick Woolf