• volcano

    Geo-engineering Discussions Heating Up

    Two recent Op-eds in two of our nation’s leading papers, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, have intensified discussions about geo-engineering as a potential solution to global warming. Fred Ickle and Lowell Wood (subscription required) lambaste all parties involved in developing an international treaty on global warming because they have focused only on mitigation and have intentionally ignored “climate geo-engineering”. Ken Caldeira took a different stance arguing that while we should continue to try to apply regulation with the goal of transitioning to a new, clean energy system, we should also set aside 1% of research funding to large-scale techno-fixes just in case we’re unable to reduce emissions enough to limit the impacts of climate change.

    While I agree with Caldeira that we shouldn’t remove these options from the table, it’s important to recognize that every hypothesized solution so far has the potential of creating new problems. Do we really want to solve one problem while creating a catastrophe of a different variety?

    Some of the potential solutions I’ve seen include James Lovelock and Chris Ripley’s recent letter to the editor in Nature who advocate for the use of pipes “to increase the mixing of nutrient below the thermocline with the relatively barren waters at the ocean surface.”


    Continue by clicking the “read more” link below

  • Climate Challenge Game

    Save the World! (In a Computer Game)

    Have you ever dream of being a president or prime minister and saving the world?

    This Climate Challenge game from the BBC simulates the important decisions the prime minister of the UK will have to make in order to prevent the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. While you are attempting to cut emissions, you also have to manage the country’s economy and maintain political support.

    Check out the game here.

    How well can you do? Feel free to post your scores in the comments section.