The Elite Ruling Class will spare no expense in its tinkering attempts
to stave off climate disaster and allow them to continue exploiting
the planet's natural resources. Of course they will, because they
will use our money, not theirs. The greed driven elite have bungled
so badly that they have brought us to the brink of extermination, yet
are convinced that, with our money, they can save planet earth...for
their purposes.
It is not yet too late to implement sustainable measures to protect
our Earth, but "to implement these sustainable measures, we must first
get rid of the economic system and the class that puts profits before
human and ecological needs."
Carl Jarvis
On 10/15/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://socialistaction.org/2016/10/13/geoengineering-the-climate-an-act-of-mad-desperation/
GEOENGINEERING THE CLIMATE: AN ACT OF MAD DESPERATION
/ 1 day ago
oct-2016-raygunBy CHRISTINE FRANK
As a last-ditch effort to curb runaway global warming, while avoiding
a definitive halt to fossil-fuel combustion, scientists, governments,
entrepreneurs, and even right-wing think tanks are advocating various
highly dangerous technologies to block solar radiation or draw down
atmospheric carbon to cool the planet. Touted as Plan B, these risky
methods come under the label of either Solar Radiation Management (SRM)
or Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR).
SRM techniques under consideration include placing space-based solar
deflectors in orbit, spewing sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere, and
seeding clouds to increase their brightness. CDR techniques include
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) of CO2 from power-plant flue
gases, the iron fertilization of the oceans to stimulate phytoplankton
blooms, and burning acres of trees for biochar burial in soils.
For any of these ruinously expensive, energy-intensive techno-fixes to
work, they must be applied on a planetary-wide, mega-scale, at great
risk to Earth’s natural systems and human societies. Their
implementation could result in an array of disastrous unintended
consequences due to reckless human interference.
A case in point would be the initial Grand Experiment of employing
fossil fuels to power the Industrial Revolution, which got us into this
mess in the first place. Over the two-and-a-half centuries of
hydrocarbon burning and steadily rising carbon dioxide emissions, the
growing evidence that greenhouse gases were warming the planet was
either ignored, denied, or deliberately suppressed by those who profited
from the coal, gas, and oil industries.
With that in mind, any child worried about his or her future could
easily grasp the folly of using Mother Earth as a laboratory for
geoengineering experiments, yet scientists as well as some so-called
environmentalists, who both should know better, are ready to push the
panic button in order to “buy time.”
To buy time for whom, we may ask? It is clear that quick-fixing the
climate will allow the capitalist class to conduct business as usual by
never having to give up fossil fuels. That is why Exxon Mobil CEO Rex
Tillerson declared back in 2007 that adapting to extreme weather and
rising sea levels is an “engineering problem” that has “engineering
solutions.”
That’s right, Rex, with the help of Yankee ingenuity and American
know-how, we can engineer our way out of ecological collapse so you and
your ilk will be free to pillage, plunder, and pollute for profit until
the natural world descends into chaos. There may be a Plan B, but there
is no Planet B! A growing number of climate crisis activists are
realizing that and demanding a ban on geoengineering experiments,
funding, and implementation.
We now know from paleoclimatic evidence that dramatic changes on a
planetary scale are difficult to reverse and can lead to irreparable
harm, even mass extinctions. Earth’s climate system is a complexity of
natural variables and feedback loops. All of the planet’s
matrices—atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, and
lithosphere—interact in non-linear and subtle ways to create a
self-regulatory whole. Therefore, a change in the solar flux could cause
an imbalance in the global heat budget and alter atmospheric
circulation, precipitation patterns, and ocean currents to the detriment
of life in the affected regions. Needless to say, the economic costs of
launching an array of sun shields or mirrors into orbit would be
astronomical.
The release of sulfate aerosols mixed with polluting jet aircraft
exhaust into the stratosphere would also have detrimental side effects.
Historically, tropical volcanic eruptions that release sulfur particles
can cause warmer winters over land masses in the Northern Hemisphere,
whereas, eruptions at high latitudes weaken the Asian and African
monsoons, causing droughts. Adding aerosols to the stratosphere could
exacerbate ozone depletion by providing more surfaces on which harmful
chemical reactions take place. Also, blocking sunlight would mean less
for renewable solar power. Acid rain that kills forests and aquatic life
could be another ill effect.
A flotilla of ships spraying seawater into the air in order to increase
Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) and brighten marine stratocumulus clouds
may not be the “Silver Lining” that is promised. It could backfire with
a counterproductive reduction in cloud cover because of all the
industrial pollutants present over the ocean adding to the mix.
For years, carbon capture and sequestration have been used to foster the
myth of Clean Coal. With a handful of exceptions, most coal-fired power
plants have not deployed CCS because of the enormous expense and energy
required to create the solvents to absorb the CO2 from the smokestacks
and to pressurize and pipe the supercritical gas underground into a
secure geologic formation. Critics have pointed out the dangers of the
highly pressurized carbon dioxide migrating through the rock fissures
and belching out at the surface where it would smother anything
breathing at ground level.
Supposedly, the CarbFix project in Iceland has succeeded in mineralizing
carbon pollution from a geothermal power station by pumping it into
subterranean volcanic basalt formations. The in situ process took only
two years rather than millions, greatly improving on geologic time
scales. The major drawbacks to applying this technique on a world scale
are the availability of basalt formations, the energy required to
transport the carbon dioxide from its source, and the amount of water—25
tons per each ton of CO2—necessary to pipe it into permanent geologic
storage. It would require a massive infrastructure.
Then there are always the problems of pipeline ruptures and wellhead
blowouts plus the hazards of deep-sea drilling. The more complex the
mechanical means, the more things that can go wrong.
Dumping a slurry of iron sulfate into the ocean to increase marine
phytoplankton populations has had limited results in drawing down
carbon. What has happened in actual trials is that iron fertilization
encourages a feeding frenzy among the zooplankton grazers, resulting in
very little carbon actually being sequestered as dead plankton or fecal
matter—marine snow—in the deep ocean.
Also, there is the danger of undermining the integrity of the food web.
Neurotoxic algal blooms can poison fish, shellfish, and marine mammals,
and nutrient overloading can deplete oxygen and create dead zones in the
world’s seas. Also, methanophilic bacteria could take advantage of the
situation and release massive amounts of dimethylsulfide (DMS) into the
atmosphere, blocking the sunlight needed for photosynthesis.
Because no government is forcing the Big Polluters to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, panicked scientists and politicians say that conventional
means of mitigating global warming are not working. Therefore, we need
to resort to more drastic measures, and they are receiving encouragement
from wealthy entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Mark
Lynas, who are eager to patent every wild, hair-brained scheme coming
down the pike. The result is the privatization of global warming
mitigation strategies to satisfy their greed. It raises the question of
who ultimately controls the thermostat and whether they have the right
to imperil the lives of everyone else.
Another reason why we are not winning the struggle to save the climate
is the cowardice of the weak, reformist environmental groups, who are
afraid to challenge the Carbon Barons head on, so they compromise by
promoting electric cars instead of clean mass transit.
Fearing the wrath of Big Auto, the Union of Concerned Scientists has
harped endlessly on improved fuel-efficiency standards because it too
cannot give up its worship of the internal combustion engine. For years,
the Sierra Club falsely advocated natural gas as a “bridge or
transitional fuel” until it was revealed that its leadership had been
taking millions in donations from the industry. Even climatologist James
Hansen believes in “green nukes” by advocating thorium reactors.
The delusional sci-fi fantasy that human beings can control powerful
natural forces is based on the mechanistic view that the Universe is a
giant clockwork that can tolerate endless tinkering without consequence.
Only the democratic control of science for the benefit of society will
allow us to work with Mother Nature instead of against her.
We already have renewable wind and solar technologies at our disposal,
which will enable us to leave the fossil fuels in the ground. Instead,
of torching trees for biochar, we should be saving the world’s forests
from the logger’s chainsaw. To increase the carbon-storage capacity of
Earth’s badly depleted, lifeless soils, organic matter must be recycled
to regenerate their health and fertility instead of flushed into the
ocean. Organic food production, not genetic monsters and toxic
chemicals, will feed the world.
To implement these sustainable measures, we must first get rid of the
economic system and the class that puts profits before human and
ecological needs.
Many have already been conducted with dubious results.
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October 13, 2016 in Environment. Tags: climate change, global warming
Related posts
The Truth About Global Warming
Obama’s climate proposals fall short
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