April 2016

12.04.2016

# New Publications

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Xia, Y.; Hu, Y.; Huang, Y. (2016): Strong modification of stratospheric ozone forcing by cloud and sea ice adjustments

Xia, Y.; Hu, Y.; Huang, Y. (2016): Strong modification of stratospheric ozone forcing by cloud and sea ice adjustments. In Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., pp. 1–20. DOI 10.5194/acp-2016-175.

"We investigate the climatic impact of stratospheric ozone recovery (SOR) with a focus on the surface temperature change in atmosphere-slab-ocean coupled climate simulations. We find that although SOR would cause significant surface warming (global mean: 0.2 K) in a climate free of clouds and sea-ice, it may result in surface cooling (−0.06 K) in the real climate. The results here are especially interesting in that the stratosphere-adjusted radiative forcing is positive in both cases."

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12.04.2016

# Media

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Counter Punch: Condemning Our Grandchildren to a Real-life Video Game

"What if a species appeared that became so powerful, that altered the chemistry of the planet so drastically that, to continue to survive, it had to figure out a way to actually block the incoming heat of the Sun. We could call this game BTS (Blocking The Sun)."

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12.04.2016

# New Publications

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Heffernan, Olive (2016): News feature. Climate research is gaining ground

Heffernan, Olive (2016): News feature. Climate research is gaining ground. In Nature Climate change 6 (4), pp. 335–338. DOI 10.1038/nclimate2974.

"The past five years have been an interesting time for the climate and for climate policy. But how has climate
science evolved since Nature Climate Change first launched? [...] One of most controversial areas of climate research — geoengineering — is increasingly capturing the attention of both physical and social scientists. Climate scientists regularly caution that geoengineering schemes are no substitute for mitigating climate change."

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12.04.2016

# Media

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New Scientist: Pilot plant to turn CO2 into house parts and paving stones

"Canadian company Carbon Engineering is combining captured CO2 with hydrogen gas to generate synthetic gasoline at its pilot plant north of Vancouver. And Newlight Technologies, based near Los Angeles, California, is using the greenhouse gas methane to manufacture plastic products such as mobile-phone cases and chairs."

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12.04.2016

# Media

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GreenBiz: How to build a billion-dollar industry to fight climate change

"Where climate regulations do exist, they are frequently too weak (or difficult to access) to make carbon removal businesses viable. And with only a negligible amount of public- or private-sector funding for research and development funding flowing to carbon removal solutions today, few political constituencies can demonstrate the value of carbon removal and advocate for the support it needs to reach commercial viability."

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12.04.2016

# Media

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Chinadialogue: World would likely need geoengineering to meet Paris targets, but what are the risks?

"Capping global average temperatures at 1.5C or 2C might only be done by using untested geoengineering technologies, writes Olivia Boyd."

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12.04.2016

# New Publications

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Dorr, Adam (2016): Technological change and climate scenarios

Dorr, Adam (2016): Technological change and climate scenarios. In Nature Climate change. DOI 10.1038/nclimate2981.

"Thecarbon and climate problem is a crisis today, regardless of what tomorrow may bring. Moreover, the risk of ‘mitigation
obstruction’ and complacency associated with the anticipation of geoengineering ‘techno-fixes’ remains a legitimate
concern."

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12.04.2016

# New Publications

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Heyward, Clare (2015): Is There Anything New Under the Sun?

Heyward, Clare (2015): Is There Anything New Under the Sun? Novelty and Exceptionalist Claims in Early Geoengineering Rhetoric. In Aaron Maltais, Catriona McKinnon (Eds.): The ethics of climate governance. London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, pp. 135–154.

"My concern is on what I take to be a precondition of suitable governance mechanisms: a sensible and constructive debate about the place of geoengineering technologies in a portfolio of responses to climate change, and their respective merits and challenges. I shall focus on one possible obstacle to such a debate: the presence of claims of exceptionalism that have appeared in the recent debates about geoengineering."

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12.04.2016

# Media

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The Conversation: How exploring Mars could help us fight climate change on Earth

"At some point in the planet’s [Mars] history, however, there must have been a thicker, denser atmosphere, probably dominated by carbon dioxide (CO2). And working out what happened to all that CO2 could help us deal with the increasing amount of the gas in our own atmosphere, which is pushing us towards dangerous climate change."

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