ETC/HOME targets “Silver Lining” Project

Got this today from Jim Thomas, ETC group (no link yet for it):

ETC Group

News release

10 May 2010

As huge cloud-whitening experiment goes public, global coalition urges an immediate halt to geoengineering.

First UN talks on issue in thirty years begin today

http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org

Amidst revelations in this weekend’s London Times newspaper[1] that a team of scientists and engineers funded by billionaire Bill Gates are planning to carry out a 10,000 square kilometer field trial of controversial “cloud-whitening” technology, over one hundred civil society groups are urging governments meeting on biological diversity in Nairobi to stop risky geoengineering experiments now. Geoengineering refers to large-scale technological schemes to intentionally alter the planet’s systems as a quick fix for climate change.

The San-Francisco based “Silver Lining Project” directed by entrepreneur Kelly Wanser has so far received $ 300,000 dollars from Bill Gates to develop technologies that will increase the whiteness of marine clouds. Theoretically, executed on a massive scale, whiter clouds could increase the earth’s albedo, reflecting more sunlight back to space and thereby reduce global warming (without changing the composition of greenhouse gases which cause warming). The Silver Lining Project has decided to press ahead with plans to alter cloud-cover over an undisclosed 10,000 square kilometre patch of ocean (as large as the BP oil slick was a few days ago). If not stopped, the Gates ‘cloud-bleaching’ experiment would be the largest known geoengineering field trial to date. Its effects could include changes in rainfall and other altered weather patterns.  One site frequently spoken of by scientists engaged in this research is the Pacific coast of North and South America (specifically California, Ecuador, Peru and Chile).

Continue Reading…

Saying New Pornographers, hearing Geoengineering

Typically lovely and  relevant lyrics in the New Porno’s (amazing) new album, from the (killer) song

Your hands:

past the center

Of the earth go straight

play the scientist and vandal

Sweating either way

Hack the Planet Reviewed by Nature

Mason Inman reviews Hack the Planet at Nature Reports: Climate Change.

“[Kintisch's] fast-paced tours through the science of geoengineering will help inform growing debates about whether governments should fund large research projects into climatic cooling and about how the various methods might be tested.”

“Kintisch…digs deeper…into explaining the details of how geoengineering might work — and why it would be so difficult to do well.”

“Kintisch…takes an insider’s view in Hack the Planet…[writing] from firmly within the world of science, and for an audience who’s comfortable with science, too.”

“…Kintisch is skeptical about the idea that we can tame and control ecosystems, let alone the whole planet.”

Eli interview at the Book Studio

Bethanne Patrick talks with Eli about his book. My first (sort of) televised interview…

Speaking in New Haven this Thursday

Earth Day talk at Forestry School,  details after jump… Continue Reading…

Our Dire Pollution Shortage: My Latest in LA Times

Today in the Op-Ed  section:

You’re likely to hear a chorus of dire warnings as we approach Earth Day, but there’s a serious shortage few pundits are talking about: air pollution. That’s right; the world is running short on air pollution, and if we continue to cut back on smoke pouring forth from industrial smokestacks, the increase in global warming could be profound.

Cleaner air, one of the signature achievements of the U.S. environmental movement, is certainly worth celebrating. Scientists estimate that the U.S. Clean Air Act has cut a major air pollutant called sulfate aerosols, for example, by 30% to 50% since the 1980s, helping greatly reduce cases of asthma and other respiratory problems.

But even as industrialized and developing nations alike steadily reduce aerosol pollution — caused primarily by burning coal — climate scientists are beginning to understand just how much these tiny particles have helped keep the planet cool. A silent benefit of sulfates, in fact, is that they’ve been helpfully blocking sunlight from striking the Earth for many decades, by brightening clouds and expanding their coverage. Emerging science suggests that their underappreciated impact has been incredible.

I’ll be leading DC Geoengineering event on Tuesday

Folks: Would love to see any of you at this event next week. I’ll be giving a 10-minute overview of geoengineering and then leading a panel on what elements ought to make up a scientific research program.

—-

From: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

What: An overview of geoengineering and an introduction to the associated policy challenges.

When: 12:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 20. Light reception starting at noon.

Where: AAAS Auditorium, 12^th and H Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. (Metro Center)

Speakers:

Introduction

Eli Kintisch, reporter for Science and author of “Hack the Planet” (Wiley, April 2010)

Panel I: Constructing a geoengineering research program

Moderator: Eli Kintisch, Science

Daniel Sarewitz, co-director, Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, Arizona State University

Michael MacCracken, chief scientist for climate change programs, Climate Institute

Panel II: Geoengineering as a new element of climate policy

Moderator: Vaughan Turekian, chief international officer, AAAS

Juliet Eilperin, environmental reporter, The Washington Post

Lee Lane,  resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and co-director, AEI Geoengineering Project Continue Reading…

Great New Podcast on Hack the Planet

I’m featured on a comprehensive, fun Point of Inquiry podcast on the book hosted by Chris Mooney here.

We covered, among other things:

why this issue has arisen right now

how conservatives view geoengineering

how the far left is thinking about the issue

why popular sentiment is going to grow against studying this idea

what it is like to be writing about geoengineering along with a Rolling Stone writer, Jeff Goodell…

I’m also taking questions at the online forums for this podcast.

Eli Quoted in Science Forum Story

I’m quoted in a short piece as part of Science Forum’s recent story, Cooling the Planet with Geoengineering, with guest economist Scott Barrett of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, who discusses the science and politics of geoengineering.

Eli on Diane Rehm Show Tuesday, 11 am EST

I’ll be part of a three-person panel on geoengineering on Diane Rehm’s NPR show on Tuesday. It’s my biggest appearance to-date about the book.

Environmental Outlook: Geoengineering

Artificial trees to capture carbon, billions of tiny mirrors to reflect sunlight, sulfate to whiten clouds: promise and pitfalls of large scale radical ideas for addressing climate change

Guests

Robert Jackson

Nicholas Chair of Global Environmental Change and a professor in the Biology Department, Duke University

Margaret Leinen

Founder and CEO, The Climate Response Fund

Eli Kintisch

author of “Hack the Planet: Science’s Best Hope- or Worst Nightmare – for Averting Climate Catastrophe”

My Story in Science Mag on Asilomar

My story in Science today on last week’s geoengineering  meeting at Asilomar in California (subscription required, but if you contact me at eligeoeng@gmail.com I can send you a PDF. ) The gist:

Most conferees believe the possibility of climate tipping points has placed geoengineering on the global agenda. And so last week’s meeting—The Asilomar International Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies, or Asilomar 2, as it was dubbed—was driven both by fears of climate catastrophes and the potentially dangerous steps that scientists or politicians might take to avert them. It was “a meeting … we all wished was not necessary,” conference organizer Margaret Leinen of the Climate Response Fund in Alexandria, Virginia, told the participants. Continue Reading…

On “Point of Inquiry” Next Week…Submit Q’s Now

Chris Mooney of Point of Inquiry will be interviewing me on his popular podcast next week, and this thread is an opportunity for the public to submit questions before the show, including

2. Does he think terraforming of Mars or Venus is practical—does he think this is inevitable as well

Great — if whimsical — question! I spent most of my time as a reporter asking the questions, not answering them, but… Continue Reading…

Boingboing Emergency Safety Card for Earth

Boingboing has picked up our Flash-based emergency safety card application, which explains the basics of geoengineering in the style of an airplane safety card (Thanks Maggie at Boingboing!).  (I designed the card with an amazing artist friend of mine, Benjamin Marra, and some talented webheads from work…)

The First Buyer of an Earth Emergency Safety Card — Stewart Brand!

I met a personal hero of mine in California at the Asilomar geoengineering conference — environmentalist, creative thinker and writer extraordinaire Stewart Brand. He saw a paper version of  the awesome Earth Safety Card and bought one on the spot from this website!

Asilomar Statement

The 175 scientists attending the international Asilomar conference on climate intervention technologies have crafted a declaration addressing questions of research methods, governance, and ethics. The following is excerpted from the press release.  You can read the full statement at ScienceInsider.

Participants reaffirmed that the risks posed by climate change require a strong commitment to mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation to unavoidable climate change and development of low-carbon energy sources independent of whether climate intervention methods ultimately prove to be safe and feasible.

The fact that humanity’s efforts to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases (mitigation) have been limited today is the cause of deep concern. It is thus important to initiate further research in the natural and social sciences to better understand and communicate whether alternative strategies to moderate future climate change are, or are not, viable, appropriate and ethical. Such strategies, which could be employed in addition to the primary strategy of mitigation, include climate intervention methods (solar radiation management) and carbon remediation methods (carbon dioxide removal).