The Technologies of Geoengineering - Essay Example

30 March Geoengineering, which is also called climate engineering, aims to deliberately manipulate the earth’s climate to reduce the effects of global warming from greenhouse gas emissions (Wikipedia). According to the National Academy of Sciences, geoengineering is defined as the “options that would involve large-scale engineering of the Earth’s environment in order to combat or counteract the effects of changes in atmospheric chemistry.” The surface of the earth becomes warm as it absorbs the sunlight. This heat is normally radiated back into space. However, the rising level of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere makes it increasingly difficult for the Earth to radiate this heat energy back into space, causing the Earth’s temperature to rise (American Institute of Physics). Geoengineering technologies that aim to address this issue can be classified into three broad areas (ETC Group, 19-21): 1. Solar radiation management (SRM) technologies: These technologies aim to reduce the effects of greenhouse gases by increasing the radiation of sunlight back into space. Researchers and advocates have suggested various techniques like covering deserts with reflective sheets to deflect sunlight or blocking the sunlight with ‘space shades’. This technology is predicted to divert about 10% of sunlight away from the planet. Researchers have also suggested covering glaciers in the Arctic region with insulating material to reflect sunlight and prevent the melting of ice. Other techniques include painting roofs and road surfaces white so as to reflect the sunlight, using superfine reflective mesh of aluminum between the Earth and sun as ‘space mirrors’ and engineer large-scale changes in water movements in order to provoke cloud formation to reflect sunlight. These SRM technologies can however cause significant environmental damage, including releasing additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. They can cause significant changes in weather patterns and reduce rainfall. They can also damage the ozone layer and diminish biodiversity. Ethically, it is also essential to know who would control the Earth’s thermostat and who will make the decision to deploy these technologies if they are considered feasible. 2. Carbon dioxide removal and sequestration: This technology aims to remove CO2 from the atmosphere after it has been released. It involves techniques like adding iron or nitrogen to ocean water to stimulate the growth of phytoplankton in an attempt to promote carbon sequestration in deep sea and developing carbon sucking machines to extract CO2 from the air in solid form so that it can be buried. Other techniques involve controlling the levels of atmospheric CO2 by spreading magnesium iron silicate on farmland or forestland and genetically engineering communities of synthetic microbes and algae to create new forms of carbon ‘sinks’. Implementation of these technologies that intervene in complex ecosystems can however cause unpredictable side effects. Again, the duration and safety of sequestration in land or sea are mostly unknown. Many of these techniques also require land/ocean use changes that can negatively affect the poor and marginalized people. 3. Weather modification: This technology does not address the causes or the mechanism of climate change, but aims only to alter its outcomes. This approach involves techniques like cloud seeding by using chemicals like silver iodide to precipitate rain or snow. This technique is already practiced on a large scale in the U.S. and China despite the skepticism about its effectiveness. Another technique attempts to prevent the formation of storms by redirecting or suppressing hurricanes. Since predicting the weather and proving the effectiveness of these interventions are difficult, these technologies may result in some unwelcome and unpredictable side effects. Attempts to produce rainfall in one location can be regarded as rainfall ‘theft’ by residents of another location, especially if it affects the agriculture and farming in the region. In 2007, the intergovernmental panel on climate change concluded that geoengineering options, such as ocean fertilization to remove CO2 directly from the atmosphere or blocking sunlight by bringing material into the upper atmosphere, remain largely speculative and unproven and have a risk of unknown side-effects. The geoengineering technologies and techniques mentioned above raise several other concerns that are listed below (ETC Group, 33): Geoengineering technologies cannot be tested since there is no ‘experimental phase’ for these climate engineering technologies. For researchers to prove a noticeable impact on the climate, geoengineering must be deployed on a massive scale. Therefore, experiments or field trials would actually be equivalent to implementation of the technology in the real world since small-scale tests would not provide the data on climate effects. Therefore, the impact of these technologies on people and biodiversity would be massive, immediate and possibly irreversible. Although all geoengineering proposals cost billions of dollars, the rich nations may find it relatively cheap and simple to implement. It is therefore important that proper measures are taken to avoid any unilateral attempts to manipulate the Earth’s ecosystems. It is extremely risky to implement geoengineered interventions since the side effects are unpredictable. These interventions can easily cause unintended consequences due to factors like mechanical failure, human error, inadequate understanding of ecosystems and biodiversity and the Earth’s climate, unforeseen natural phenomena, irreversibility or funding interruptions. Geoengineering techniques can violate treaties since they have latent military purposes. Implementing these technologies would violate the UN Environmental Modification Treaty (ENMOD), which prohibits the hostile use of environmental modification. Geoengineering offers governments another option instead of focusing on the healthier and safer method of reducing emissions and protecting biodiversity. In conclusion, the world is an ecosystem that is currently experiencing climatic changes in response to the increasing green house gases. However, counteracting this issue with additional man-made climatic changes is not a wise choice since this would lead us to uncharted territories. The risks of implementing these geoengineering technologies are extremely high since they have to be implemented in a large scale with no guarantee on the nature of the outcome. Again, different nations may implement geoengineering technologies to manipulate their climate while ignoring its impact on other nations. This can lead to social, political and even military risks. In light of these concerns geoengineering is an unacceptable solution to address the issue of global warming. Works Cited American Institute of Physics. The Discovery of Global Warming. May 21, 2011 < http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm> ETC Group. The Case Against Geoengineering. May 21, 2011 < http://www.etcgroup.org/ upload/publication/pdf_file/ETC_geopiracy_4web.pdf> Intergovernmental panel on climate change. Climate Change 2007: Working Group III: Mitigation of Climate Change. May 22, 2011 National Academy of Sciences. Geoengineering. May 23, 2011 Wikipedia. Geoengineering. May 24, 2011 Read More