News - Climate Engineering - Kiel Earth Institute

13.04.2018

0 Comments

Saving Our World: How a last-ditch ‘planet-hacking’ plan could keep Earth habitable for longer

"The world is unlikely to hit the targets necessary to avoid catastrophic levels of climate change. Some think that as a last resort, we may need to temporarily cool the planet by modifying the skies. It wouldn’t solve the problem, but it might buy us time. This technology, called solar geoengineering, is so controversial that some experts think it could lead to global war. But just in case, a team of researchers at Harvard is planning to conduct one of the first outdoor geoengineering experiments."

LINK

27.07.2017

# Media

0 Comments

MIT Technology Review: This Scientist Is Taking the Next Step in Geoengineering

"Harvard’s David Keith explains why it’s time to move forward with outdoor experiments and broader research programs."

LINK

27.04.2017

# New Publications

0 Comments

Lenferna, Alex; et al. (2017): Relevant Climate Response Tests for Stratospheric Aerosol Injection. A Combined Ethical and Scientific Analysis

Lenferna, Alex; Russotto, Rick; Tan, Amanda; Gardiner, Stephen; Ackerman, Thomas (2017): Relevant Climate Response Tests for Stratospheric Aerosol Injection. A Combined Ethical and Scientific Analysis. In Earth's Future. DOI: 10.1002/2016EF000504.

"In this paper, we focus on stratospheric sulfate injection as a geoengineering scheme, and provide a combined scientific and ethical analysis of climate response tests, which are a subset of outdoor tests that would seek to impose detectable and attributable changes to climate variables on global or regional scales. We assess the current state of scientific understanding on the plausibility and scalability of climate response tests. Then we delineate a minimal baseline against which to consider whether certain climate response tests would be relevant for a deployment scenario. Our analysis shows that some climate response tests, such as those attempting to detect changes in regional climate impacts, may not be deployable in time periods relevant to realistic geoengineering scenarios. This might pose significant challenges for justifying SSI deployment overall."

LINK

21.04.2017

# Media

0 Comments

Nextbigfuture Blog: Tests for safe Geoengineering should start now

"Harvard’s Schrag argued the opposite: that the scariest version of the future may be one where geoengineering is never developed or deployed. “I don’t think people understand just what we’re up against with climate,” he said. “The most likely scenarios for climate over longer time scales are devastating to future generations, absolutely devastating.”"

LINK

18.04.2017

# Media

0 Comments

Harvard Crimson: Harvard Researchers Launch Solar Geoengineering Moonshot

"Launched this weekend, Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program will investigate the safety of geoengineering as well as its environmental and political implications. Scientists specifically look into a technique of injecting specific particles into Earth’s upper atmosphere to create a barrier that reflects more sunlight away from the atmosphere."

LINK

12.04.2017

# Media

0 Comments

[press review]: US solar geoengineering field study

Press coverage on Harvard project on testing stratospheric particle injection. (updated)

08.04.2017

# Media

0 Comments

ETC Group: Why SRM experiments are a bad idea

"Solar Radiation Management (SRM) describes a set of geoengineering techniques that aim to counter human-made climate change by artificially increasing the reflection of heat from sunlight (solar radiation) back into space. Some advocates have started using the term “solar geoengineering” – but these techniques are not related to solar power production."

LINK

04.04.2017

# Media

0 Comments

New York Times: To Curb Global Warming, Science Fiction May Become Fact

"That is where engineering the climate comes in. Last month, scholars from the physical and social sciences who are interested in climate change gathered in Washington to discuss approaches like cooling the planet by shooting aerosols into the stratosphere or whitening clouds to reflect sunlight back into space, which may prove indispensable to prevent the disastrous consequences of warming."

LINK

31.03.2017

# Media

0 Comments

BBC: Do We Need A Plan B For Climate Change?

"At a recent press conference on the new US budget questions were asked about funding for climate change initiatives. The answer was stark. “We’re not spending money on that anymore,” reporters were told"

LINK

31.03.2017

# Media

0 Comments