#134 The solution to Pollution is ....... Pollution?
Saturday, November 18
Given the lack of progress in emission reductions, one scientific method that often pops up as a solution is to block a portion of the sun rays for reducing the global temperatures. In layman terms, Geoengineering is a way to intervene in the Earth's climatic system.
Geoengineering involve various means of injecting particles into the atmosphere in order to reflect more sunlight back to space, thereby reducing the amount of heat that reaches the earth. In the climatic lingo, it is known as Solar Radiation Management (SRM).
There are various ways one can achieve this -
1. By space mirrors
2. Cloud brightening - spraying sea water into the sky.
3. Spraying sulphate aerosol into the stratosphere.
The method of spraying sulphate into the stratosphere has already happened naturally by the eruption of volcanoes. One famous example is of the Pinatubo eruption in 1991. The year after eruption, global temperature dropped by half a degree Celsius.
However there are a lot of problems with SRM which are never brought onto the table for discussion
The haze could prevent Astronomers from seeing the stars and planets clearly, thus affecting space exploration.
Diminishing sunlight could reduce the capacity of solar power generators to produce energy. The irony being that on one hand we are trying to make a shift to renewable sources of energy and on the other hand using geoengineering will reduce the solar energy generation.
SRM fails to address the major problem - the buildup of heat trapping gases and instead treats only the symptom of warmer temperatures. This might stop the melting up of glaciers but does nothing to address the increased carbon that oceans continue to soak up.
Rainfall will be affected by injecting sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere. Models predict that Africa and South Asia would be the most affected continent. Who are we to pick and choose the affected continents?
Lastly, this experiment once deployed on a large scale cannot be undone. Because the heat trapped would be so enormous that once it is allowed to escape the repercussions could be severe.
We can test a vaccine on one person before giving it to millions. But with geoengineering we cannot test anything. We cannot solve the problem of pollution by more pollution.
The so called Technical solution can turn out to be one last big mistake that could destroy the habitable planet. Bill gates describe geoengineering as an insurance policy, something we have in our back pockets and will only use it when things go from bad to worse. However it is worth considering the fact that small field tests often run into bigger ones. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed less than a month after Trinity, the first successful nuclear test despite the fact that the scientists involved in the Manhattan project never knew that the bomb would be used for real and were under the impression that would be used only as a deterrent.
The solution to global warming is not to fix the world but to fix ourselves. Geoengineering does nothing to cut the emissions. We very likely would not be dealing with a single geoengineering effort but some noxious brew of mixed up techno fixes -
Sulphur in space to cool the temperature
Cloud seeding to fix the drought it causes
Ocean fertilisation in a desperate gambit to cope with acidification, and
Carbon sucking machine to help us get off the geo junk once and for all.
If we respond to a global crises caused by our pollution, by injecting more pollution by pumping a different kind of crud into the stratosphere then geoengineering might do something very crazy and dangerous. It may cause the Earth to go wild in ways we cannot imagine - maybe the last tragic act in the long fairytale of control.
See you next weekend, have a wonderful week ahead :)
Cheers!
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