20 reasons why geoengineering may be a bad idea

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Volumn 64, Issue 2, 2008, Pages

  Robock, Alan ^a  

^a Center for Environmental Prediction   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 44049089654     PISSN: 00963402     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2968/064002006     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Paul Crutzen, "Albedo Enhancement by Stratospheric Sulfur Injections: A Contribution to Solve a Policy Dilemma?" Climatic Change, vol. 77, pp. 211-19 (2006);
2. Tom M. L. Wigley, "A Combined Mitigation/Geoengineering Approach to Climate Stabilization," Science, vol. 314, pp. 452-54 (2006).
3. See the chapter on climate modification schemes in Spencer R. Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming (2007), available at http:// www.aip.org/history/climate/RainMake.htm;
4. a long history of geoengineering proposals in James R. Fleming, "Fixing the Weather and Climate: Military and Civilian Schemes for Cloud Seeding and Climate Engineering," in Lisa Rosner, ed., The Technological Fix (New York: Routledge, 2004), pp. 175-200;
5. and James R. Fleming, "The Pathological History of Weather and Climate Modification," Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, vol. 37, pp. 3-25 (2006).
6. See also N. Rusin and L. Flit, Man Versus Climate (Moscow: Peace Publishers, 1960);
7. Mikhail I. Budyko, Climatic Changes (Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, 1977);
8. Ralph J. Cicerone et al., "Global Environmental Engineering," Nature, vol. 356, p. 472 (1992);
9. Edward Teller et al., Global Warming and Ice Ages: I. Prospects for Physics-Based Modulation of Global Change (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Publication UCRL-JC-128715, 1997);
10. David W. Keith, "Geoengineering the Climate: History and Prospect," Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, vol. 25, pp. 245-84 (2000).
11. John Latham first raised this idea in two articles that appeared in Nature, vol. 347, no. 6291: "Control of Global Warming," pp. 330-40,
12. and "Effect on Global Warming of Wind-Dependent Aerosol Generation at the Ocean Surface," pp. 372-73 (1990).
13. Keith Bower offers a numerical evaluation in "Computational Assessment of a Proposed Technique for Global Warming Mitigation Via Albedo-Enhancement of Marine Stratocumulous Clouds," Atmospheric Research, vol. 82, pp. 328-36 (2006).
14. See Lee Lane, Ken Caldeira, Robert Chatfield, and Stephanie Langhoff, eds., "Workshop Report on Managing Solar Radiation," NASA/ CP-2007-214558 (2007).
15. Kevin E. Trenberth and Aiguo Dal, "Effects of Mount Pinatubo Volcanic Eruption on the Hydrological Cycle as an Analog of Geoengineering," Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 34, no. 16, (2007).
16. For more on warming over continents of the Northern Hemisphere, see Alan Robock, "Volcanic Eruptions and Climate," Reviews of Geophysics, vol. 38, pp. 191-219 (2000);
17. Georgiy Stenchikov et al., "Arctic Oscillation Response to Volcanic Eruptions in the IPCC AR4 Climate Models," Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 111, (2006).
18. For more on the effects of Asian and African monsoons, see Luke Oman et al., "Climatic Response to High-Latitude Volcanic Eruptions," Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 110, (2005);
19. Luke Oman et al., "High-Latitude Eruptions Cast Shadow Over the African Monsoon and the Flow of the Nile," Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 33, (2006).
20. Royal Society, Ocean Acidification Due to Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, June 30, 2005, available at royalsociety.org/ displaypagedoc.asp?id=13539
21. Susan Solomon et al., "The Role of Aerosol Variations in Anthropogenic Ozone Depletion at Northern Midlatitudes," Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 101, (1996);
22. Susan Solomon, "Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: A Review of Concepts and History," Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 37, (1999).
23. L. Gu et al., "Responses of Net Ecosystem Exchanges of Carbon Dioxide to Changes in Cloudiness: Results from Two North American Deciduous Forests," Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 104, no. 31, pp. 421-31, 434 (1999);
24. L. Gu et al., "Advantages of Diffuse Radiation for Terrestrial Ecosystem Productivity," Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 107, (2002);
25. L. Gu et al., "Response of a Deciduous Forest to the Mount Pinatubo Eruption: Enhanced Photosynthesis," Science, vol. 299, pp. 2,035-38 (2003).
26. Budyko, Climatic Changes.
27. Richard P. Turco et al., "A Study of Mesospheric Rocket Contrails and Clouds Produced by Liquid-Fueled Rockets," Space Solar Power Review, vol. 3, pp. 223-34 (1982);
28. V. A. Mohnen, "Stratospheric Ion and Aerosol Chemistry and Possible Links With Cirrus Cloud Microphysics-A Critical Assessment," Journal of Atmospheric Science, vol. 47, pp. 1,933-48 (1999).
29. K. Sassen et al., "The 5-6 December 1991 FIRE IFO II jet Stream Cirrus Case Study: Possible Influences of Volcanic Aerosols," Journal of Atmospheric Science, vol. 52, pp. 97-123 (1993).
30. D. W. Olsen et al., "When the Sky Ran Red: The Story Behind The Scream," Sky & Telescope, February 2004, pp. 29-35.
31. 2-Induced Climate Change," Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 27, pp. 2,141-44 (2000).
32. For the response of solar power systems, see Michael C. MacCracken, "Geoengineering: Worthy of Cautious Evaluation?" Climatic Change, vol. 77, pp. 235-43 (2006).
33. Robock, "Volcanic Eruptions and Climate," pp. 191-219.
34. Roger P. Angel, "Feasibility of Cooling the Earth with a Cloud of Small Spacecraft Near the Inner Lagrange Point (Li)," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 103, pp. 17,184-89 (2006).
35. See Figure 1 in Wigley, "A Combined Mitigation/Geoengineering Approach to Climate Stabilization," pp. 452-54,
36. and Figure 3 in H. Damon Matthews and Ken Caldeira, "Transient Climate-Carbon Simulations of Planetary Geoengineering," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 104, pp. 9,949-54 (2007).
37. See for example Stephen H. Schneider, "Earth Systems: Engineering and Management," Nature, vol. 409, pp. 417-19, 421 (2001),
38. and Ralph J. Cicerone, "Geoengineering: Encouraging Research and Overseeing Implementation," Climatic Change, vol. 77, pp. 221-26 (2006).
39. James R. Fleming writes eloquently about the militaristic history of climate modification schemes in "The Climate Engineers," Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2007, pp. 46-60.
40. See also Fleming, "Fixing the Weather and Climate,"
41. and Fleming, "The Pathological History of Weather and Climate Modification."
42. Stephen W. Pacala and Robert Socolow, "Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies," Science, vol. 305, pp. 968-72 (2004);
43. Alan Robock, "Nuclear Power's Costs and Perils" (Letter to the Editor), Physics Today, vol. 60, no. 1, p. 14 (2007).