John,
FYI see this very negative post about SAI:
Why “Dimming the Sun” Might Be the Most Dangerous Climate Fix Yet - https://scitechdaily.com/why-dimming-the-sun-might-be-the-most-dangerous-climate-fix-yet/ and the original open access paper in Nature - Engineering and logistical concerns add practical limitations to stratospheric aerosol injection strategies - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-20447-2
Chris.
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Hi John,
thanks for your work - nice one and agree fully with that we have to start earliest with high latitude cooling - also to find out in how far we can cool it down as we need to strengthen the Hemispheric temperature gradient as to reduce it via SRM while blocking sunlight to reach the lower atmospheric column could lead to wind speeds declining significantly and that can fast become hugely problematic - it has even a feedback character as winds control also heatwaves or ocean heat uptake and SSTs.
I would add that we have to find out in how far we can cool the Arctic down - ocean heat works against it and we have only a 4 months time window - false hopes with SRM could be our downfall - so we have to try it to know it!
Therefore, just one central point that has to be understood:
The oceans already took up immense amounts of heat, with no amount of SRM able to mask this signal as the heat is already in the oceans. This heat prevents a Holocene state. Its also a reason why we need more studies on this issue as it is not really being addressed by now by the literature.
The problem with this heat:
The more you try to cool the climate down via blocking suns radiation to reach the surface the more strongly the ocean heat will work against the cooling - temperature difference between atmospheric air column and ocean surface temperatures - so with cooling latent heat release from the oceans increases likely - we need here studies!
Further, by blocking shortwave radiation (and reflecting it back to space) you also reduce surface emitted longwave radiation to reach space while you increase the downwelling of longwave radiation back to the surface that is being released by the oceans. You get here a tug of war which SRM can't win. So some cooling possible, but in how far we can cool the system down by no means clear as the oceans will prevent us to come down to pre-industrial temperature levels.
Here one recent study result by one study:
"Modeled results suggest that if anthropogenic emissions decrease and the atmosphere cools, heat stored in the Southern Ocean could be released abruptly in a few hundred years, kicking off a temporary warming period."
"The Southern Ocean May Be Building Up a Massive Burp"; https://eos.org/research-spotlights/the-southern-ocean-may-be-building-up-a-massive-burp
Important here to understand this had been a simple model study so this study points more to a principle than an exact timing. In reality the above could be already be underway as we have a heat accumulation in certain regions of the oceans where we get now these massive marine heatwaves.
Here just where the heat is accumulating now decoupling form the lower oceans - will be the next emerging topic in climate science:

Therefore, another study result that El Nino's would still be strengthening after an emission stop:
The deep ocean, a vast thermal reservoir, absorbs excess heat under greenhouse warming, which ultimately regulates the Earth’s surface climate. Even if CO2 emissions are successfully reduced, the stored heat will gradually be released, resulting in a particular pattern of ocean warming. Here, we show that deep ocean warming will lead to El Niño-like ocean warming and resultant increased precipitation in the tropical eastern Pacific with southward shift of the intertropical convergence zone. Consequently, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation shifts eastward, intensifying Eastern Pacific El Niño events. In particular, the deep ocean warming could increase convective extreme El Niño events by 40 to 80% relative to the current climate. Our findings suggest that anthropogenic greenhouse warming will have a prolonged impact on El Niño variability through delayed deep ocean warming, even if CO2 stabilization is achieved.
"Deep ocean warming-induced El Niño changes"; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50663-9
Here just two paragraphs from me of how much heat we are speaking here about compared to atmospheric heat content increases:
Ocean heat uptake rates:
Since the 90s we observe an acceleration of ocean heat uptake (6). In recent years it reached exceptional heights (7/8). From 1958 to 1985 mean annual uptake rates were ~2.9 ZJ *1 (Zeta joule a number with 21 zero’s). Since 2007 the rates more than tripled to ~11.1 ZJ (7). If we take the most recent period from 2020 to 2024 OHU accelerated even further. During that period we reached staggering annual mean values of ~18 ZJ (The values in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 had been ~17 ZJ, ~21 ZJ, ~19 ZJ, and ~15 ZJ, respectively) (8). A 6-fold increase since 1958-1985.
Bringing ocean heat uptake into perspective
The energy density of ocean water is about 3500 times higher than air. Keeping that in mind the following can be understood. The amount of heat that is stored in the first 2.5 m of the oceans equals the amount of energy that is stored in the atmosphere. The upper 100 m of the oceans store already 34 times that amount (10). This explains why the ~240 ZJ that the oceans accumulated from 1955 to 2010 would have been enough to warm the lower 10km of the atmosphere by 36°C (11). In 2024 we reached the staggering amount of ~452 ZJ (8). At the same time the atmosphere gained just ~5 ZJ (5). These numbers show crystal clear that to heat up a water planet insanely fast is to play around with serious amounts of energy.
This tug of war between the oceans accumulated heat and SRM needs to be resolved before we can even say that we can substantially cool down the climate - current SAI etc. model experiments do likely not incorporate this problem as you need fully coupled Earth system models which are highly expensive to run - computational power - and even they can not reproduce current uptake rates and heat distribution - so you need a prescribed scenario with real world observations included...
All the best
Jan
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GHG reduction can, and always has, reduced global warming in the past, so it is just untrue to claim it can’t, and saying so discredits your claims at the very outset.
It works, but it’s just too slow to prevent runaway overshoot due to the maniac fossil fuel polluters.
You need to state the time frame clearly in order to avoid saying something that is clearly false to any scientist.
I’m reminded of the phrase “all religions are equally false to the philosopher, and equally useful to the politician”.
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Tom’s claim here needs to be challenged. GHG removal by itself cannot now reduce global warming. Far from being discredited, John’s observations are accurate. John was talking about the current situation, which is totally different from past natural GHG removal in the ice ages. The multi-millennial time scale of the previous natural GHG removal that Tom cites is not relevant to our current anthropogenic crisis, which is operating on an unprecedented rapid decadal time scale. Nothing we do now about GHGs can remove heat in the absence of intensive effort to rebrighten the planet.
As well, it is useful to clarify John’s point that the failure of emission reduction as a climate strategy is because of the committed warming from legacy CO2. Cutting new emissions cannot possibly cool the planet, mainly because the heating from loss of albedo is now several times greater than the heating from new emissions. The albedo feedback is caused by legacy emissions, but the proximate cause of warming is that accelerating warming feedbacks now have a life of their own independent of new emissions. Darkening of the planet, mainly due to loss of clouds and ice, totally swamps any possible cooling effect of decarbonisation.
I wish Tom would try to be more careful and precise and accurate before jumping in with false claims about important policy observations being discredited.
Regards
Robert Tulip
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Please remove me from this list.
On Nov 2, 2025, at 2:51 pm, rob...@rtulip.net wrote:
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On Nov 2, 2025, at 6:28 pm, David Spratt <dsp...@bigpond.net.au> wrote:
Level of CO2 is now greater than in last 14-16 million years:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi5177
The ups and downs over last 800,000 years are driven primarily by Milankovitch cycles.
David Spratt
Hi all, just to make the point via studies that it is by far not clear in how far the Arctic can be cooled down and feedbacks being reversed.
First the passage of >40 experts on the Arctic - in my opinion this statement has to be taken seriously:
"SAI would require a highly specific deployment to have a significant impact in the polar regions (58, 59). The radiative forcing from stratospheric aerosols depends on the amount of local incoming solar radiation and top-of-atmosphere albedo. Polar regions are less responsive to aerosol injection during sunlit periods because of their lower insolation and the higher albedo produced by ice and snow (60–62). Furthermore, injections are completely ineffective during the winter months in the polar regions. The Brewer–Dobson circulation, which is characterized by rising air in the tropics and descending air in the mid and high latitudes, affects the distribution and lifetime of stratospheric aerosols. Therefore, aerosols injected at high latitudes have a shorter lifetime and more localized cooling effects owing to their rapid removal by the poleward movement and descent of air (63), which calls into question the effectiveness of SAI in the Arctic. The effectiveness of SAI in preventing ocean-driven glacier retreat and sea level rise is also likely to be limited (64)."
"Safeguarding the polar regions from dangerous geoengineering: a critical assessment of proposed concepts and future prospects"; https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/science/articles/10.3389/fsci.2025.1527393/full
Let's go more into detail:
Cloud cover over the regions where most of the heat release takes place is very high during summer - 70-80% with the fraction likely being higher today as clouds increase across the Arctic and we have only some 3-4 months time:

"Environmental Drivers of Arctic Low-Level Clouds: Analysis of the Regional and Seasonal Dependencies Using Space-Based Lidar and Radar"; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-2698/egusphere-2025-2698.pdf
And here where the heat loss takes place - its where most of the clouds are and where most of the sea ice declined - some 50% of the heat coming from northward ocean transport...

This is the next issue - the halocline across the Arctic ocean is weakening and coming closer to the surface which is separating the sea ice from the warm Atlantic water - sea ice melt rates increased rapidly from the below the last decades - this we can't counter with SRM:
"A 15-yr duration record of mooring observations from the eastern (>70°E) Eurasian Basin (EB) of the Arctic Ocean is used to show and quantify the recently increased oceanic heat flux from intermediate-depth (~150–900 m) warm Atlantic Water (AW) to the surface mixed layer and sea ice. The upward release of AW heat is regulated by the stability of the overlying halocline, which we show has weakened substantially in recent years. Shoaling of the AW has also contributed, with observations in winter 2017–18 showing AW at only 80 m depth, just below the wintertime surface mixed layer, the shallowest in our mooring records. The weakening of the halocline for several months at this time implies that AW heat was linked to winter convection associated with brine rejection during sea ice formation. This resulted in a substantial increase of upward oceanic heat flux during the winter season, from an average of 3–4 W m−2 in 2007–08 to >10 W m−2 in 2016–18. This seasonal AW heat loss in the eastern EB is equivalent to a more than a twofold reduction of winter ice growth. These changes imply a positive feedback as reduced sea ice cover permits increased mixing, augmenting the summer-dominated ice-albedo feedback."
"Weakening of Cold Halocline Layer Exposes Sea Ice to Oceanic Heat in the Eastern Arctic Ocean"; https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/33/18/jcliD190976.xml
Then a positive NAO and a stronger AMOC is connected with an increase in northward warm water transport which is hoped to establish with Arctic cooling - and models are quite bad at simulating it - so we get also here a tug of war:
We investigate how the ocean responds to 10-yr persistent surface heat flux forcing over the subpolar North Atlantic (SPNA) associated with the observed winter NAO in three CMIP6-class coupled models. The experiments reveal a broadly consistent ocean response to the imposed NAO forcing. Positive NAO forcing produces anomalously dense water masses in the SPNA, increasing the southward lower (denser) limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) in density coordinates. The southward propagation of the anomalous dense water generates a zonal pressure gradient overlying the models’ North Atlantic Current that enhances the upper (lighter) limb of the density-space AMOC, increasing the heat and salt transport into the SPNA. However, the amplitude of the thermohaline process response differs substantially between the models. Intriguingly, the anomalous dense-water formation is not primarily driven directly by the imposed flux anomalies, but rather dominated by changes in isopycnal outcropping area and associated changes in surface water mass transformation (WMT) due to the background surface heat fluxes. The forcing initially alters the outcropping area in dense-water formation regions, but WMT due to the background surface heat fluxes through anomalous outcropping area decisively controls the total dense-water formation response and can explain the intermodel amplitude difference. Our study suggests that coupled models can simulate consistent mechanisms and spatial patterns of decadal SPNA variability when forced with the same anomalous buoyancy fluxes, but the amplitude of the response depends on the background states of the models.
"North Atlantic Response to Observed North Atlantic Oscillation Surface Heat Flux in Three Climate Models "; https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/37/5/JCLI-D-23-0301.1.xml
This means that from a scientific point of view its far from clear in how far SRM can (a) cool down the Arctic and reestablish sea ice and (b) we have to communicate this and THAT is the reason we need more studies and that we have to test it to understand its effectiveness as it could become an invention of a last resorts, if 1.5°C is the threshold from where on a dangerous tipping point cascade is triggered...
"Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points"; https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7950
IMO we have to communicate uncertainty which is exactly the reason why we need to test it and study it way more in depth. Hence, uncertainty is not an argument against SRM but an argument to start to explore its effectiveness for real as we will need it to at least slow down the emergent tipping cascade of the Earth system which becomes ever more immanent...
All the best
Jan
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Jan,
Your statement is absolute true. During more than 10 years of experience in many different climate science meetings I noticed a scientific facts ignorance in many discussions about climate engineering methods. Soon I revealed, that this property applies mainly to the SAI advocate fraction.
We need to find out the best climate restoration method. We have to do this without them. And we are on a good track to this goal. What was the best way to do this? Do it by intense study of the natural processes and try to turn down any borders between chemistry, biology, geology and physics. The more you do it the more you extended your personal horizon of climate relevant sciences.
Franz
Robert, my statement that GHG removal by itself cannot now reduce global warming is not ‘patently untrue’ and I stand by it.
“By itself” means in the absence of measures such as sunlight reflection to directly mitigate warming feedbacks from albedo loss. In our current situation, any possible level of cooling from GHG removal will be swamped by the heating caused by accelerating albedo feedbacks. Bruce Parker and James Hansen have proved this quite clearly. It is a basic essential fact that contradicts orthodox climate mythology and must be understood to gain social licence for cooling. GHG removal alone is a recipe for complacency and failure.
Your invocation of basic physics is confused. When ‘basic physics’ occurs in the presence of something else that is a far bigger opposite force, it stops working. It is basic physics that a fridge freezes food, but if the fridge is put near a hot blast furnace it lacks enough power to freeze anything. That is the problem facing all carbon action.
You also ignore my word “now”. It will take decades to ramp GGR up to a climate relevant scale, and in the meantime we will cook without SRM.
You may not have noticed Tom Goreau’s regular rudeness. You are right that he is usually insightful, but not in this case.
Thanks David and David
On the Milankovitch Cycles mentioned by David Spratt, the orbital insolation cycles continue, but these are now decoupled from climate. New anthropogenic climate forcings are far bigger and faster than the tiny slow orbital forcings over tens of thousands of years. Ruddiman explained that methane from neolithic rice and cows and CO2 from clearing started the decouple of Milankovitch Cycles from climate, preventing the slide back to cooling that would have occurred without agriculture, and creating the anomalous stable Holocene sea level.
David Price, you said “It is “easy” to argue that the cyclic coupling of CO2 and mean planetary temperature seen in the succession of glaciations and déglaciations over the last 800,000 years implies that reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions will trigger global cooling on millennial time scales.”
It may be easy to argue, especially when the contrary facts are censored from view, but as you point out it is wrong. Ice age cycles operated over the hundred thousand year sawtooth pattern revealed in ice cores. These cycles involved CO2 amplifying the orbital drivers to oscillate between ~180 and 280 ppm. The comparison of this slow subtle sensitive cycle to our current geologically instantaneous dumping of 2.5 trillion tonnes of CO2 into the air gives no grounds to assert that reducing emissions could trigger cooling. Marginally slowing the speed of GHG increase, or even stopping the increase entirely, is nowhere near the order of magnitude required to initiate cooling.
On “research which provides a convincing explanation for why the biosphere alone will drive a natural return to 350 ppm”, the IPCC says yes, but this looks implausible.
The research is known as the Zero Emission Commitment, argued for example at https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/science/articles/10.3389/fsci.2023.1170744/full written by the same ideologues who call for a ban on cooling research (Siegert et al).
IPCC uses this flawed ZEC hypothesis to assert that temperature could fall after reaching net zero emissions. Critics find this implausible. NZE could only occur at a temperature close to or more than three degrees C above baseline. It is likely that planetary sensitivity and fragility could kick the system across to a hothouse at that sustained temperature.
The ZEC argument is primarily used to justify the IPCC ideology that subsidising renewable energy firms is more important than cooling the planet. It has no scientific basis as far as I can tell. That did not stop the suppository of all climate wisdom, Professor Michael Mann, from asserting on US national television in his 60 Minutes interview in 2020 that ZEC is the new climate paradigm.
Regards
Robert Tulip
From: David Spratt <dsp...@bigpond.net.au>
Sent: Monday, 3 November 2025 1:30 PM
To: David Price <da...@pricenet.ca>; rob...@rtulip.net; Nissen John <johnnis...@gmail.com>; Tom Goreau <gor...@globalcoral.org>; Douglas Grandt <answer...@mac.com>; Peter R Carter <peterc...@shaw.ca>
Cc: healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [HPAC] [prag] Re: PRAG special meeting re Arctic Emergency Report Card
Level of CO2 is now greater than in last 14-16 million years:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi5177
The ups and downs over last 800,000 years are driven primarily by Milankovitch cycles.
David Spratt
On 3 Nov 2025, at 1:07 pm, David Price <da...@pricenet.ca> wrote:
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You're missing the point. You said that Tom's claim needs to be challenged because 'GHG removal by itself cannot now reduce global warming.' Reading into that sentence the implied words that GHG removal can't reduce warming to a safe level quickly enough, I agree with that, as I'm sure does Tom, but he did not claim it could. He said that reducing GHGs reduces warming - incontrovertible fact. He also said 'it’s just too slow to prevent runaway overshoot' - incontrovertible fact. He also underlined this point by adding that 'You need to state the time frame clearly in order to avoid saying something that is clearly false.' Wise advice.
Your response illustrates that you failed to take your own advice and be 'careful and precise and accurate before jumping in with false claims'.
Moreover, you added insult to injury by then asserting that Tom is guilty of 'regular rudeness'. Whatever happened to civility and the ability to disagree with respect? Such abusive ad hominem remarks have no place in this forum.
I repeat, an apology from you would not go amiss. Do you have that in you?
It might help you to remember that no one associated with HPAC is likely to claim that albedo enhancement is not now necessary to avert a climate catastrophe. But there is, I suspect, likely to be a wide range of opinions about what that means for continued fossil fuel emissions.
If humanity generally were as rational as your arguments require it to be, we wouldn't be in this situation. Any viable pathway out of this mess will have to accommodate that fact.
Hi Jan--I'd suggest your suggestions about how bad SRM could be need to be put in context of how terrible and catastrophic the situation seems pretty sure to be if SRM is not available. It seems to me the likelihood that SRM could be a net benefit is well higher than not, whereas the likelihood of no SRM being disastrous is far higher than not.
I again suggest my tourniquet metaphor when happening to come along and finding a seriously bleeding accident victim. Even if my tourniquet is not perfectly sterile, perhaps a torn up sweaty T-shirt, it would seem a far better option than only calling to 911 to come more quickly. Allowing further warming, thawing of permafrost, and loss of ice and with a commitment to much more melting in going without SRM seems to me much the greater risk, difficult as that may be to convince people of who find it hard to imagine how bad things could get, and how fast.
Best, Mike MacCracken
Hi Mike, but we can't be sure - there exists a huge uncertainty like e.g. technical issues - but if things go anyway down to climate hell what options we would have, despite reducing GHG levels as fast as possible, as the climate catastrophe would be already unfolding.
Its all about exploring a card if its playable and to what extent...
All the best
Jan
Hi John, but you can't be sure in all points ;)
Cheers
Jan
Hi Jan--Climate intervention is not an independent solution, it is a potential supplement to mitigation, CDR and adaptation that must be done, seeking only to cut off the peak impacts. In my view, best to keep from getting to worst conditions rather than thinking of applying it in response to worst conditions, when it really won't help much.
Best, Mike
Hi Jan--I'd say some uncertainties--while also noting that they seem less and more addressable than the uncertainties about going forward without going forward with climate intervention. Consider all the various tipping points ahead--and potential benefit of staying further away from them. Once they start occurring, virtually impossible to reverse.
Mike
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Dear Jan--We are way beyond the point where a decision framing based on being "sure in all points" is going to mean the proverbial frogs in a warming pan will just stay there and cook to death--we're at a stage where we are going to be working to find the "least bad" option for surviving.
Mike MacCracken
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I agree absolutely - we are likely heading into a climate state where we have to try everything - and this should be communicated as if this should be happening we will have to go all in. So important that we know better what we do. This is the reason it has to be researched as a priority along with means to get rid of GHGs in the atmosphere.
Just one example: if we can not cool down the polar regions substantially SRM will reduce Hemispheric temperature gradients which will have a massive impact on global circulation patterns which is in itself a feedback driven by disturbances of zonal flow patterns.
Therefore, to explore Arctic cooling is of vital importance, and this we should communicate. Admitting that SRM could go wrong does not make the argument for SRM any less important. It even strengthens the argument, as it could be the only option that gives us some time to reduce GHGs while slowing down the tipping cascade of the climate system.
Uncertainty, is THE argument for exploring SRM as we need to know how it works best.
Cheers
Jan
Jan/John,
The paper from Siegert et al. (2025) is deeply flawed and biased as can be see from comments on it by Robert Chris in his 2 emails on 9th September and also by:
Chris.
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![]() | |
On Nov 4, 2025, at 1:24 PM, Ron Baiman <rpba...@gmail.com> wrote:
<image001.png>
"Environmental Drivers of Arctic Low-Level Clouds: Analysis of the Regional and Seasonal Dependencies Using Space-Based Lidar and Radar"; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-2698/egusphere-2025-2698.pdf
And here where the heat loss takes place - its where most of the clouds are and where most of the sea ice declined - some 50% of the heat coming from northward ocean transport...
<image002.png>
<PRAG Trends and Targets 2023-05-28 (US spelling)-1.pdf>
John,
In the recent 2025 Tipping Points report, the 5 global tipping points closest to tipping are said to be (page 24 in the Summary Report):
The list of the 4 polar tipping points above is different to your list.
Chris.
Also, note this UNEP report that on the webpage says:
“Ten years after the 2015 Paris Agreement, decarbonization remains a cornerstone of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. However, decarbonization alone is insufficient. While reducing emissions is critical, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) already exceeds acceptable levels, necessitating the removal of historical emissions to reverse climate change. Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is essential to achieving “net negative” emissions, a concept supported by climate science and integrated into ambitious net-zero pathways.” - https://www.unepfi.org/publications/how-to-get-to-the-net-a-discussion-paper-on-carbon-dioxide-removal/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Putting aside the need for cooling, this alone blows Siegert et al out of the water regarding their approach that just relies on decarbonisation!
Chris.
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Hi all,
the problem is that their arguments on cooling the Arctic are technically correct. And its a big open question in how far we can cool it down.
You can't argue away physics with semantics.
Sadly, we seem to live evermore in a post factual world....
All the best
Jan
Robert, this is a painful discussion. I greatly admire Tom Goreau for his work on coral reefs, on geotherapy and especially his visionary biorock concept, another brilliant invention that for some weird reason fails to engage investment. However, in this thread, Tom quite rudely and falsely stated to John Nissen “GHG reduction can, and always has, reduced global warming in the past, so it is just untrue to claim it can’t, and saying so discredits your claims at the very outset.”
I am not making an ad hominem criticism here as you wrongly allege. I am focused on the substance. I could go back and find other examples from my own interactions but just want to focus on this point.
Tom’s inflammatory response appears to be in reply to John’s correct statement “A widely held view among scientists is that emissions reduction can somehow tame global warming and bend down the temperature curve. This is wishful thinking, not based on science. Scientists who make this claim cannot have grasped the reality of the heating power from greenhouse gases which is driving up temperatures. “
Tom’s comment packs three fallacious non sequiturs– firstly (“it is just untrue”) between geological and anthropogenic GHG processes, then (“saying so”) between Tom’s inference and John’s words, and finally the significant attack (“discredits your claims”) that Tom launches.
As I pointed out in my initial response, the relation Tom implies between ice age carbon patterns and our current situation is not as direct as he suggests in our context where possible carbon cooling effects are swamped by planetary darkening. Looking at this again, the rudeness and inaccuracy of Tom’s assertion about John being discredited – for something he did not say – is worth noting. We already have enough hostile enemies mounting such baseless criticisms. Tom’s reaction to my comment was to take his bat and ball and go home.
As I have pointed out, and you seem to have studiously ignored, our current situation is that nothing we do about carbon will make a short term difference to temperature, which can only be reined in by sunlight reflection. That is entirely precise and accurate as far as I can see, although it conceals many bombs in policy terms. This relation between albedo and carbon as climate levers is a fundamental issue in HPAC policy discussions, on which there are a range of views that deserve courteous respectful discussion. John Nissen’s views seek to be entirely scientific, so throwing around baseless claims about being “discredited” is distinctly unhelpful.
You have not responded to my fridge and blast furnace analogy which justifies my argument. Another analogy I find helpful is building a one foot levee for a town that gets twenty foot floods. The one foot levee can help reduce flooding, but in reality that help is worthless. That is the situation for your argument that “reducing GHGs reduces warming.” As I have argued before, carbon action is too small, slow, expensive, contested, risky and difficult to be an effective climate response. This is why we need an Albedo Accord as a new institution to lead a strategic pivot in climate policy.
Regards
Robert Tulip
Your ‘hole’ analogy is routinely used as a dumb suggestion for climate policy, to defend emission reduction alone as the best strategy. The “hole” metaphor collapses because modern economies can’t just drop the shovel. It is equally wrong here. I am not in a hole in this exchange, and am disappointed that you seem unable to read it clearly. Stick to the substance.
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Completely agree with you on the urgency of cooling!
In January 2025 I submitted a paper to Oxford Open Climate Change with a complete summary of the entire global 2024 record sea surface temperature anomaly, ocean circulation, and bleaching spatial patterns, concluding at the end that study and application of SRM is the last hope to save corals. But incredibly, it is still not published after almost a year, because they can’t find anyone to review it except those who viscerally object to any discussion of SRM! Since then, all the places identified as vulnerable have lost most of their corals.
Fossil fuel pollution has totally outpaced, by orders of magnitude, the capacity of natural processes to clean them up. But we COULD very easily and affordably accelerate most natural biological carbon storage processes (with rock powder, biochar, reforestation), and limestone production (with solar powered electrolysis).
Recovery to sustainable conditions would be vastly faster than most could imagine if we just used existing regenerative technologies instead of the degenerative technologies (fossil fuels, land degradation, ocean pollution, etc etc) that some clearly envision as unalterable holy writ.
Unfortunately I know the carbon cycle better than most modelers: the lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere is more than a century, but is recycled around dozen times through the biota back to the atmosphere, before being lost, then about 1500 years cycling many more times in the ocean, then eventual burial in sediments for millions of years. We need to involve all parts of this cycle including the tail to bring it into balance, but few look at the whole picture.
I apologize for boring you again with these obvious trivialities that everyone should know, except that so many speak about what they have not studied.
From: John Nissen <johnnis...@gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 07:48
To: Tom Goreau <gor...@globalcoral.org>