Global warming... *gasp*

Oh my goodness, has global warming got so bad since my sec sch days (when I last touched on the topic...) that such drastic measures are actually being considered? Oh God/Allah/Buddha/Whoever, please don't destroy my beloved Earth yet, for I haven't found THE girl =P

From The Straits Times

Sep 19, 2006
Global warming: The solutions are out there
Scientists debate wacky ways of manipulating the environment


New York A NEW controversy is brewing in the world of climate science - over a once obscure strand of study that involves manipulating the environment to counter global warming.

Proponents, who include a Nobel prize-winning scientist, say it is the best chance to save the world while critics decry the proposals as wacky ideas that distract from curbing greenhouse gases that cause the problem.

Some of the ideas include having trillions of tiny sunshades orbiting in space and a mirror 240km high stationed between Earth and the Sun.

Such plans for cooling the planet are now rapidly gaining credibility in the world of climate science, says Britain’s Sunday Telegraph.

The newspaper says that geoengineering is a word which the world will doubtless be hearing much more of as a small but growing band of scientists points out that the time is looming for emergency action. The group says the world cannot wait for the row over the causes of climate change to be settled before taking action.

'Ideas that might have been seen as totally wacky even a year ago are now being actively considered,' says Dr Roger Angel, a leading British astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Society. Based at the University of Arizona, Dr Angel has proposed putting trillions of small lenses - wafer-thin, light as a butterfly - into orbit to deflect sunlight.

Mr Wallace Broecker, a pioneer of geoengineering at Columbia University, believes the mood is changing.

'Geoengineering offers the prospect of an insurance policy. It could buy us some breathing space while we decide how to capture and get rid of carbon dioxide and reduce emissions,' he says.

'But the reality is that conservation and alternative energy sources are never going to solve the whole problem. We need to look for other solutions. For too long, we have been talking and debating and time has been slipping by.'

Alarmed that man could begin to attempt to tinker with the environment, The Telegraph says, many mainstream scientists still view geoengineering rather like climatic eugenics.

They have argued that it is no answer to pollute the atmosphere with contaminants. which would exacerbate the situation - turning blue skies forever grey. That strategy could also distract industry and aviation from cutting back on the fossil fuel emissions that help to form heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

But supporters of geoengineering have just received a major boost from Mr Paul Crudzen, a highly respected Nobel prize-winning German scientist.

He threw his considerable academic weight behind the idea of injecting sun-blocking sulphates into the stratosphere in a key paper published last month in the journal Climatic Change.

Various other proposals are also being floated, some more outlandish than others.

Low-level flat clouds over the oceans deflect sunlight back into space. So Mr John Latham, a Briton, is one of a group of scientists at the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research who proposes spraying tiny droplets of seawater at cloud level to make them better mirrors for the sun's rays.

Over at the Star Trek end of the spectrum, there is the suggestion that a huge 240km-high mirror could be positioned millions of km out in space on a direct line between the Earth and Sun to fend away sunlight.

Among the more down-to-earth proposals is one to cover swathes of the desert with giant plastic sheets to reflect sunlight. Then there is one to fertilise the sea with iron to create blooms of plant life to suck up carbon dioxide.

Dr Crudzen says he does not see geoengineering as a stand-alone solution to climate change but that it should be investigated as a fall-back option.