Climate Scientists Propose Need to Use the Latest Technology Against Global Climate Crisis

Steve Connor and Chris Green write in The Independent of the United Kingdom: "An emergency "Plan B" using the latest technology is needed to save the world from dangerous climate change, according to a poll of leading scientists carried out by The Independent. The collective international failure to curb the growing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has meant that an alternative to merely curbing emissions may become necessary. he plan would involve highly controversial proposals to lower global temperatures artificially through daringly ambitious schemes that either reduce sunlight levels by man-made means or take CO2 out of the air. This "geoengineering" approach ... would have been dismissed as a distraction a few years ago but is now being seen by the majority of scientists we surveyed as a viable emergency backup plan that could save the planet from the worst effects of climate change, at least until deep cuts are made in CO2 emissions...the failure to curb global greenhouse gas emissions through international agreements, namely the Kyoto Treaty, and recent studies indicating that the Earth's natural carbon "sinks" are becoming less efficient at absorbing man-made CO2 from the atmosphere." The inability of the Earth to adequately absorb CO2 through natural processes means that CO2 levels "are now rising faster than even the worst-case scenarios" established by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Global monitoring has determined that CO2 levels "increasing at a rate of 1 per cent a year" have created the need to develop an "emergency" approach that will bring greater pressure to bear "involving research, development and possible implementation of a worldwide geoengineering strategy." Increasing numbers of research scientists and other climate authorities believe that humanity faces nothing short of "the artificial manipulation of the global climate to counter the effects of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases." There is considerable agreement that geoengineering "must not be seen as an alternative to international agreements on cutting carbon emissions but something that runs in parallel to binding treaties in case climate change runs out of control and there an urgent need to cool the planet quickly... Professor James Lovelock, a geo-scientist and author of the Gaia hypothesis, in which the Earth is a quasi-living organism," explains his concerns: "I never thought that the Kyoto agreement would lead to any useful cut back in greenhouse gas emissions so I am neither more nor less optimistic now about prospect of curbing CO2 compared to 10 years ago. I am, however, less optimistic now about the ability of the Earth's climate system to cope with expected increases in atmospheric carbon levels compared with 10 years ago,.. I strongly agree that we now need a geoengineering strategy is drawn up in parallel with other measures to curb CO2 emissions." Some of the geoengineering plans include: "... inject(ing) artificial sulphate particles into the upper atmosphere – the stratosphere" to reflect the rays of the sun away from the Earth. A shortcoming with this approach suggested by Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen is that it fails to "address ocean acidification caused by rising CO2 levels... which might cause side-effects such as acid rain and adverse effects on agriculture." Another idea "of increasing the Earth's albedo, or reflectivity to sunlight, is to pump water vapour into the air to stimulate cloud formation over the sea... The cloud cover would only affect the oceans, but still lower global temperatures." Another idea considers seeding the oceans with iron filings to increase the "phytoplankton bloom which absorbs CO2." An approach devised by James Lovelock and Chris Rapley is "a plan to put giant tubes into the seas to take surface water rich in dissolved CO2 to lower depths where it will not surface. The idea is to take CO2 out of the short-term carbon cycle, cutting the gas in the atmosphere." It has also been proposed by experts that "t would be possible to deflect sunlight with a giant mirror or a fleet of small mirrors between the Earth and the Sun." Each of these plans only represent initial attempts to employ geoengineering techniques that each have their own particular drawbacks and in some cases might exacerbate the climate crisis to even greater levels. To date, the only points of agreement among scientists and other experts lie with the greater than expected rise of CO2 in the atmosphere and the concerted effort that it will take to find solutions to the Global Climate Crisis.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Global Climate Crisis

Ban Ki-Moon, secretary-general of the United Nations has issued a plea for cooperation among the nations of the Earth to formulate a unified strategy to solve the worsening global climate crisis: "The past year will be remembered for the global financial crisis. But next year will be no less dangerous, albeit for a different reason. Lost among the economic headlines is an even more important fact: emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, rose by an unexpected 3 percent in 2007.This revelation means that the 50 percent targets for carbon cuts set by Europe and elsewhere by 2050 are already out of date. Scientists now say reductions of 60 to 80 percent will be needed to avoid a catastrophe. There is other bad news. Everyone knows about the accelerated melting of Arctic sea ice. Now recent U.N. reports offer evidence of less visible but equally troubling changes. Our planet's species are going extinct at an unprecedented rate, according to the U.N. Environment Program. Massive "dead zones" are multiplying in the oceans as pollutants are absorbed, killing off coral reefs and decimating fisheries. Incidents of extreme weather, such as the hurricanes that devastated Haiti and Myanmar, have grown more frequent. Insurers predict that 2008 will set yet another record for economic losses. Meanwhile, U.N. refugee agencies believe that as many as 50 million people will be displaced by climate-related disasters by 2010, and the figure could hit 200 million by 2050. All this points to a stark truth: though we can overcome the financial shocks of 2008, we will not overcome the climate-change crisis unless we act fast. This means 2009 will be the critical year for the critical challenge of our era."

A recent meeting in Poznan, Poland brought world leaders together to lay the foundations for future climate strategies that will be extensively discussed in 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark when the nations of the Earth will attempt to establish an extensive agreement of principles to deal with global climate change. It is hoped that developed and developing nations can agree to establish a unified front in which the new United States Administration of Barack Obama takes the lead in solving climate change. With the United States in the lead, it is hoped that nations such as China, Brazil, India and other "newly developed nations" can follow the United States lead and work to combine various methods and technologies that will foster global economic growth while finding practical ways to slow down and solve global climate troubles.

Ban Ki-Moon realizes that the path to solving the climate crisis presents world leaders with many tough choices: "Some experts advocate strict emissions limits. Others favor voluntary targets. Still others debate the pros and cons of "cap and trade" carbon markets versus taxes and national conservation regulation. In truth, there is no single solution to climate change. We need all of the above. The important thing is to act, and to act now. When it comes to climate change, it's make-or-break time."