Herb Simmens
Author of A Climate Vocabulary of the Future
“A wonderful achievement, a SciencePoem, an Inspiration, a Prophecy, also hilarious, Dive in and see"
Kim Stanley Robinson
@herbsimmens
The importance of Hugh Hunt’s point about numbers is the challenge it poses to the opponents of geoengineering to adopt their own advice and follow the science.
The 2009 Royal Society review of geoengineering (Table 3.6 p35) estimated that sunlight reflection is 1000 times better value for money than decarbonisation as a cooling strategy. Such an extreme differential demands explanation of why policymakers and experts prefer the option that is one thousand times worse than the other, especially when climate impact is supposedly the primary rationale for public funding of climate programs. But of course the response is only silence and deflection. No wonder many of them insist the better option should not even be discussed or studied. This is what is known in paradigm studies as an anomaly.
As JM Keynes said, “when the facts change I change my mind.” If only climate policy makers had such a rigorous and humble approach. As a good summary of how climate facts have changed, I encourage people to read Robert Hunziker’s excellent new article https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/13/severe-climate-system-eruption/.
Regards
Robert Tulip
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Hi Paul
As your post is in reply to my comment I will give you my thoughts on your questions.
Climate stability requires immediate action to restore albedo and remove greenhouse gases. However, I do not see much evidence for your argument that a coalition is forming that recognises this point. Political divisions are still too strong, funding is too small and strategies are too confused to enable effective unity around this proposition. By contrast, ignorant opponents of action to rebrighten the world are well funded, organised and effective, on both the political left and right. These opponents are successfully sowing disinformation to prevent action to advocate for a scientific world view on planetary protection.
My view is that the best way to manage excess CO2 is industrial oceanic photosynthesis. Algae production on 3% of the world ocean could remove more GHGs than total emissions, funded mainly by production of commercial commodities such as fertilizer, food and fuel. Algae commodities will soon become a major world industry, partly in response to fossil fuel politics.
Attacking the fossil fuel industry is not an effective climate strategy. Your claim that “The other coalition wants to know if you're serious about eventually restoring CO2 levels” ignores the problem that this “other coalition” is not serious about this. Their main agenda is opposition to fossil fuels, a strategy that only marginally slows the increase of CO2, does nothing for climate restoration, involves a high level of economic and political fantasy and discord, and is resolutely opposed by powerful industries, organisations and communities.
I expect that the benefits of restored albedo will prove to be so immense that use of sunlight reflection to manage weather will rapidly become a major world industry, alongside carbon mining. This planetary infrastructure will emerge in this century on a similar scale as industries like aviation and pharmaceuticals did last century.
On your question about world suffering, restoring albedo should the main agenda for stopping the sixth extinction event that is now underway. I say this because action on albedo is essential to prevent civilizational collapse. Albedo action can serve as an entry point for objective analysis of strategies to reverse the polycrisis, as the first step on the critical path to a sustainable global paradigm.
Your use of the term “dumping” is incorrect and politicised. Dumping means getting rid of waste. Stratospheric aerosol injection is not at all about getting rid of waste, but only about rescuing the planet from a descent into chaos.
On “the expected basic research and ramp-up costs and timetable” I support the estimate of Keith et al that $2 billion to research effective cooling methods could avoid damage of $10 trillion, a benefit cost ratio of 5000 to 1. Global research coordination at this scale will require an Albedo Accord modelled on the Montreal Protocol. As with planting trees, the best time to start was twenty years ago. Such research is needed to study all technologies and prove up the best candidates, which I see as SAI and nanobubbles.
You ask about a backup plan. Humanity has no future without coordinated global albedo management, which is a foundational requirement for ongoing peace, stability, security, biodiversity and prosperity.
Your comment about Koch is strange. The fossil fuel industry does nothing to promote geoengineering. Their climate trolling is all about denial of science. For you to speak approvingly of the idea that “neutral people have an unconscious bias deep in their brains” amounts to an assertion of the moral legitimacy of irrational prejudice, no better than support for racism or slavery. People are better than that, and generally want to support things that are good and rational.
Regards & Thanks
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Changes in ocean circulation determine whether heat remains at the surface or is stored at depth. Ditto for CO2.
N.B. This is for 2022, which we can now fondly remember as the last cool year?
Multi-year La Niña–El Niño transition influenced Earth’s extreme energy uptake in 2022–2023
Nature Geoscience volume 19, pages432–438 (2026)Cite this article
Abstract
Earth’s energy uptake—defined as the global mean net incoming radiation at the top of the atmosphere—surged in 2022–2023, contributing to record global surface temperatures and widespread climate extremes in 2023–2024. Yet, the causes of this extreme energy uptake remain unclear, reflecting limited knowledge of how internal climate variability shapes Earth’s energy imbalance. Here we investigate the drivers of the observed extreme energy uptake by using multi-model climate simulations and satellite-based observations. We show that the transition from the multi-year La Niña to El Niño was key to Earth’s extreme energy uptake in 2022–2023, upon the externally forced positive imbalance. Our sampling analyses from the multi-model simulation dataset highlight the dominant influence of the La Niña-to-El Niño sequence on enhanced energy uptake, with crucial importance of multi-year persistence in preceding La Niña. When combined with estimates of the externally forced component derived under Shared Socio-economic Pathway scenarios, the contribution associated with the La Niña-to-El Niño transition explains about 75% of the observed extreme energy uptake. Our finding underscores the role of internal climate variability in shaping Earth’s energy budget and its potential amplification under a warming climate.
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“People are better than that, and generally want to support things that are good and rational.”
Some indeed are, but NOT those in power now, making exi$tential decision$ about our future.
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