Sounds Risky to Us: Simulating a Volcanic Eruption to Counter Global Warming
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 08.15.07
We've heard of some fairly "creative" geo-engineering schemes in the past — to name just a few, there was the giant, orbiting reflector to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth and the football-field-sized synthetic blankets to cover the Alps — but this one really takes the cake. Some scientists have argued that emulating a volcanic eruption could help mitigate global warming by pumping sulphur particles into the planet's upper atmosphere with rockets — scattering incoming sunlight and cutting down outgoing radiation.
A new study from two scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, has (not suprisingly) cast doubts on this proposal — cautioning that its use would create problems of its own, including potentially disastrous droughts. Examining precipitation and streamflow records dating back to the mid-20th century, Kevin Trenberth and Aiguo Dai found that the eruptions of two volcanoes — Mexico's El Chichón in 1982 and the Philippines' Pinatubo in 1991 — caused large-scale droughts accentuated by substantial decreases in rainfall, runoff and river discharge into oceans.
The authors thus reason that a geo-engineering scheme set up to achieve the same effects could have similar dramatic consequences for the planet. Assuming we did choose to pursue this strategy, we would have no way of discontinuing it even if we found the drought predictions to be true since, as Joe Romm explains, doing so would cause global temperatures to rapidly re-escalate, resulting in other potentially catastrophic side-effects.
Given their high costs and potential for dangerous and unprecedented side-effects, it's time we shelve these ideas and focus on more feasible, cost-effective solutions.
Via ::Biopact: Climate change and geoengineering: emulating volcanic eruption too risky (news website), ::Climate Progress: Geo-Engineering is NOT the Answer (blog)
Did anyone see the last episode of the TV Show 'Dinosaurs'? They tried something like that also...caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Great environmental messages in that episode...also very depressing.
Stop global warming by setting off a bunch of rockets and bombs? Come on, the current administration could get behind this sort of thing in a heartbeat!
I was just about to mention "Dinosaurs"! Yes, if I recall, they threw bombs into the volcano, hastening the ice age. The last shot of the show was the family house being covered in snow. The hearts of many children were broken that evening.
Somewhere deep down, I always knew that a Jim Henson series would predict the end of humankind. Man, do I hate being right.
I love how my fellow americans oftentimes find great parallels to life - in Movies and TV shows.
Some of my friends will relate they way they felt about a certain incident by relating to how a certain screen character they believe felt in episode XYZ.
And now the entire world's fate will get measured by a TV series....??
Would you please get off your couches and start looking reality in the eye?
You would actually have to FEEL something real!
Like how it feels when your grandkids look at you when they ask you if you knew what was going down right now...and why you chose to not do anything!
Yet another infected band aid over a gangrenous wound type solution and it seems like total insanity to me. Glad those scientists have spoken up - these types of ideas really scare the crap out of me.
I think if humanity contemplates something that drastic, then it would seem less drastic to (gasp) severely curtail fossil fuel usage, consume less stuff and green what stuff we have.
This is just an honest question so please do not flame me. I'd like to know what the effect of discharging ozone at the ozone level would be? We seem to be able to make the stuff at ground level rather easily. Why not put it in a tank and strap a rocket to it. When it gets to the correct elevation you open up the tank and out comes all the ozone.
Generally speaking, when an idea sounds simple, it's also generally a bad idea. I don't know anything about this sort of thing, but just wanted to ask about it. Seems to me that it would work better than faking an eruption because it would be using sulfur, it'd be using what we are currently needing more of...ozone.
Seems another crazy idea that won't get off the ground - for the moment at leat. These things may be what we're doing in 20 or 50 years time.