THE Royal Society is backing research into simulated volcanic eruptions, spraying millions of tons of dust into the air, in an attempt to stave off climate change.
The society will this week call for a global programme of studies into geo-engineering — the manipulation of the Earth’s climate to counteract global warming — as the world struggles to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
It will suggest in a report that pouring sulphur-based particles into the upper atmosphere could be one of the few options available to humanity to keep the world cool.
The intervention by the Royal Society comes amid tension ahead of the United Nations-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen in December to agree global cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. Preliminary discussions have gone so badly that many scientists believe geo-engineering will be needed as a “plan B”.
Ken Caldeira, an earth scientist at Stanford University, California, and a member of a Royal Society working group on geo-engineering, said dust sprayed into the stratosphere in volcanic eruptions was known to cool the Earth by reflecting light back into space.
“If I had a dollar for geo-engineering research I would put 90 cents of it into stratospheric aerosols and 10 cents into everything else,” said Caldeira.
The interest in so-called aerosols is linked to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. The explosion blasted up to 20m tons of tiny sulphur particles into the air, cooling the planet by about 0.5C before they fell back to earth.
The Royal Society is Britain’s premier science institution and its decision to take geo-engineering seriously is a measure of the desperation felt by scientists about climate change.
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The Ridiculous society. It’s quite embarassing. someone on another thread that AGW ideology is going into the stupid stage. Thanks to the Royal society for taking us into the lunacy stage.
Their global warming dogma is presented in an even more rudimentary and sparse way than the Met Office, devoid of data, proven models or possible doubts. At least the met office claim great uncertainties in present models. In fact, they almost boast about how uncertain their scenarios are.
Who are the Royal Society to comment on matters about which they know even less?
We don’t need a man-made volcano. Reverse some of those expensive automotive “clean air” regulations, including carbon, and phase them out again in the future, after global warming fears subside and clean burning, renewable fuels become more abundant and less expensive.
Global temperatures began to rise in recent years when clean air standards phased out the “pollutants” faster than the use of fossil fuels (and CO2) could be phased out. Those “pollutants” were offsetting the relatively limited effects the increasing use of fossil fuels and associated CO2 might be having on global warming.
AAR
You know, it sure would be nice if we would throw more money into cold fusion research rather than hair-brained ideas like polluting our atmosphere in order to, “save it.”
Seriously, why are we constantly looking for solutions to the side effects rather than the cause of the problem? If folks are really concerned about AGW, we should be investing in cleaner energy production rather than legislating CO2 emissions, trying to seed the atmosphere in order to make more clouds, or considering “simulating,” a volcanic eruption.
I would have no problem wasting my tax dollars on funding expensive cold fusion research. I have a serious problem with our government trying to stifle our economic growth, or with our (or any other government) considering adding more pollution to our atmosphere in order to combat potential warming.
Anthony, looking into that manmade volcano, it doesn’t sound to me like its actually man-made or man-caused. I was looking at this website: http://mikejkt.livejournal.com/14323.html, and it seems to me that there’s evidence this volcano wasn’t even remotely caused by the drilling. Just another case of a ‘scientist’ in the UK who did research from his computer and via satellite without actually looking at the evidence in person, and published a study devoid of the facts.
“Hunt (18:41:47) :
Seriously, why are we constantly looking for solutions to the side effects rather than the cause of the problem?”
We meaning politicians? Because taxing the air we breathe and the fuels we use is….EASY!
To tell you the truth, I’m sorta kinda all for a n ew Ice Age. Welfare bums don’t like living in states with real winters (particularly those with doctorates in desperate search for research grants). If we do it right, Mexico might wind up with an illegal immigration problem before the Royal Society numpties are done breaking things. Of course by then, THOSE guys would have made so much cash off of the grants they can retire to Cozumel on a legal retirement visa and not have to deal with the aftermath up nawth.
Are these guys from the Royal Society stark raving mad as well as being so utterly arrogant that they believe they are so all powerful that they can control the global climate?
Are they, with all their fancy degrees, really so utterly ignorant that they have never heard of the law of unintended consequences and the very good chance that they will destroy a good part of life on Earth when their crazed schemes go all wrong through consequences that neither they nor anybody else ever expected or foresaw?
Have this tiny and completely arrogant bunch of totally self indulgent crazies ever bothered to ask the other six and three quarter billion people on this planet whether they want this mob of so called “climate scientists” to start messing with their weather and climate just so that this same almost invisible bunch of crazies can satisfy their own ideologically twisted mindset?
The Royal Society was once a great and respected institution.
With this sort of proposition emanating from it’s former hallowed halls, it is demonstrating it’s accelerating fall from the promotion of rational science and is degenerating into an outpost of extremism of the worst possible kind.
Oh dear, more evidence that the left are completely unhinged… next thing they’ll be wanting us to detonate nuclear weapons in the Antarctic to create nuclear winter…
Unfortunately, the state of science in England at the moment is quite dire with regard to veracity or explanations. It might have something to do with us being a small island with a corresponding myopic personality and so therefore take an advocacy based position which frames the evidence to fit the facts, than using facts to form a theory.
I know that in the US, Germany, Denmark, Australia – in short, most countries with an aptitude for sound science there are many presenting peer reviewed and empirical studies the don’t confer this political agenda that has corrupted science on the matter of climate.
in the UK we seem to have a lack of this. Maybe we’re just too homogenous a society and so when our institutions are wrong,. they are wrong all the way to the last degree. I must say, this position taken by this odd Royal Society is almost as amusing as some of the bizarre claims made by Aristotle. However, Aristotle wasn’t a ‘doom and gloom and life is woe advocate, but don’t worry, we can save the world just like Doctor Who’
Perhaps too much science fiction has blurred the distinction between imagination and reality.
Reply: There must be something left of the England that gave us Newton and Shackleton. ~ ctm
Pineapples!
We’ll fire them into the stratosphere causing them to freeze
and explode into highly reflective sub-atomic pineappicules.
This will reflect incoming radiation, cooling the atmosphere
and creating a stratospheric smoothie. The Gaia Mother,
being pleased, will allow us all to live happily ever after…..
in Sedona!
Let’s drop a nuke into an active volcano and see what happens.
Yeah, that would be fun.
Any volcanos in Iran?
Oh yes. Gaia. for such a small island. So many cranks
Hunt (18:41:47) :
“I would have no problem wasting my tax dollars on funding expensive cold fusion research. I have a serious problem with our government trying to stifle our economic growth, or with our (or any other government) considering adding more pollution to our atmosphere in order to combat potential warming.”
Im with you on that, (although im not sure how exactly cold and fusion go together) But as i understand it, fusion is mathematically possible, My brother has been doing some sums on this subject. And if he is to be believed it is doable. For that matter those fast breeder reactors show great potential. But certainly more practical things to be investing in, hell if we find out selves facing thermogedon, then its time for the half baked acts of lunacy. Not before hand.
Some Dust Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Chief Bromden: I’m not saying they killed him. They just worked on him. The way they’re working on you.
How about waiting to entertain this idea until AFTER the MET office makes correct seasonal forecasts for three years running with their new super computer?
I can’t believe these guys are serious. They must be trying to scare us into cutting carbon dioxide emissions by pretending the only other choice is even worse.
Right?
Just how does one pour ‘sulphur-based particles into the upper atmosphere’?
I strongly suspect that the reason cold fusion was ridiculed and all funding for it cut off was that had it proved a feasible energy source, it would have killed the AGW bandwagon stone dead, because the end of the age of fossil fuels and CO2 release into the atmosphere would have been clearly in sight.
Climate scientists would now be modeling the effects of declining CO2 levels and the hysteria would be about the coming ice age.
I’ve read the cold fusion papers and there is definitely a net energy producing process there, although its far from clear what it is.
It could work.
Or we could wait for 50 or 100 years to see if temperatures have actually increased.
At least we’ll know if the Drake Equation needs to be adjusted for how long an intelligent civilization will last. It might need a pseudo-science run amok adjustment (on second thought, we should already make that change).
how does one alter the climate in the royal society? maybe all its members should send forth a volcanic eruption to the board
“Tom in Texas (19:00:03) :
Let’s drop a nuke into an active volcano and see what happens.
Yeah, that would be fun.
Any volcanos in Iran?”
It’s funny, some people want to bomb Iran (Persia) when, after all, Iran didn’t exsit until the 1940’s. Iraq was formed in 1936, Israel in 1948. The whole region messed about with by the British to further their own political goals and fight the Turks. Palestine was Palestine…and what do we have today?
Science isn’t happening in the pollitically correct UK. A blogger once said to me some years back that “communism” would have worked if it was applied to the UK rather than Russia. I am inclined to beileve that.
Is this for real?
If so: pure madness.
Any volcanos in Iran?”
There is a very large, but dormant for a couple of thousands years, volcano 50 or so kilometers from Tehran.
Pictures
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.aliparsa.com/poppy/damavand.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.aliparsa.com/poppy/poppy.html&usg=__ADx7qXFUsTrzhLM0aapzK9-_Lhc=&h=310&w=400&sz=30&hl=en&start=15&um=1&tbnid=EG0to7s5guUFEM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvolcano%2Btehran%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B2GGGL_enTH321TH321%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1
A couple of ideas about the technology: How about a nuclear bomb on that pyramid of sulfur at Fort McMurray that no one seems able to market? Or how about a really big version of the science fair project that kids are told specifically to NOT do–a big, really big, unimaginably big, soda/vinegar volcano–but use sulfuric acid instead?
In all seriousness, a cool planet will be a dry planet. Are the Royal Society geniuses ready to take the responsibility for that? Pinatubo had a pronounced effect on river discharge worldwide. The decline was something like 18%. This has the sound of another “we had to destroy the world in order to save it” sort of scheme.
These people are mad and dangerous. This is non sense and even beyond crazyness the Royal Society lends itself to this farce.