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Giving Mother Earth a Facelift
Campus Report ^ | June 29, 2009 | Mytheos Holt

Posted on 06/30/2009 1:52:07 PM PDT by bs9021

Giving Mother Earth a Facelift

by: Mytheos Holt, June 29, 2009

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) recently hosted a discussion entitled “Governing Geoengineering.” Lee Lane, a resident fellow and director of the AEI Geoengineering Project, moderated the discussion, which focused on a working paper written by Dr. Scott Barrett, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

The concept of Geoengineering developed in Barrett’s paper turns the premise of human-caused climate change alarmism on its head, arguing that if humans can cause climate change by emitting carbon, then they can counteract this same phenomenon through a variety of tactics besides simply ceasing carbon emissions. Barrett outlined some of these, including the “simple option” of “painting roofs white,” “whiten[ing] clouds by throwing up spray” or “throwing particles up into the stratosphere.” Moreover, according to Barrett, the “costs are extremely low” and the “effect on clouds are very short-term,” meaning that geoengineering is potentially an almost costless solution both economically and environmentally. One particularly imaginative fashion by which such engineering could be effected, Barrett said, would be to employ “an armada of thousands of ships spinning around at sea throwing up spray.”

Yet despite the seemingly simple nature of this solution, Barrett did describe several obstacles and reasons for doubt. While he took a pro-geoengineering stance, calling the idea of banning its use altogether “implausible,” Barrett also criticized the idea of “us[ing] geoengineering as a first line response.” “It won’t resolve all the problems,” Barrett said. “There are known unknowns and unknown unknowns involved.”....

(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: climatechange; environment; geoengineering; globalwarming

1 posted on 06/30/2009 1:52:08 PM PDT by bs9021
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To: bs9021

2 posted on 06/30/2009 1:54:50 PM PDT by wastedyears (The Tree is thirsty and the hogs are hungry.)
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To: bs9021

I proposed that if Dubai can air condition the outdoors, well then so can we.

It would be much cheaper if everyone just opened all the doors and windows to their houses with the AC on full go 24/7. That would surely cool the earth by 1 degree.

(It makes about as much sense as MMGW increasing the global temperature)


3 posted on 06/30/2009 1:56:36 PM PDT by Tenacious 1 (Government For the People - an obviously concealed oxymoron)
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To: Tenacious 1

Send us your money or Mother earth is going to look like Michael what’s his name.


4 posted on 06/30/2009 2:18:24 PM PDT by shineon
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To: bs9021

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles...hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages...And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet...the planet...the planet isn’t going anywhere. WE ARE! - George Carlin


5 posted on 06/30/2009 2:27:04 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: bs9021
Barrett outlined some of these, including the “simple option” of “painting roofs white,”

This idea is right up there with "painting the roses red." And like the red queen, Barrett has zero scientific background or competence to be engaging in this fashionable sort of (environ)mental masturbation. He's an economic hack from Britain, where competence long ago lost out to demogogery.

6 posted on 06/30/2009 2:57:00 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: bs9021

The nut job has a point, I’ll bet the albedo effect has more impact on the climate than CO2. There is a local effect around cities which makes cities warmer than the country side they are built upon. But this a mainly a local effect. Nevertheless I propose we build giant ultrasonic cold air humidifiers humidifiers int he oceans to increase cloud cover and rain, win-win..

Makes as much sense!


7 posted on 06/30/2009 5:47:58 PM PDT by GraceG
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