Global
Warming
Updated
August 2008
The
urgency and severity of the problem is rapidly climbing up the popular and
political agenda. To deal with this we
have to do three things and we have to start all three of them now. These are:
1.)
Change from our carbon and fossil fuel based worldwide energy systems to
totally carbon free energy. This cannot
be done instantaneously and in the light of the expansion and industrialisation
of much of the developing world, some time this century is probably the only
realistic timescale.
2.)
Because of the inevitable delay in achieving 1, we must develop the technology
to remove CO2 from the atmosphere in the very large quantities that we are
emitting it, in order to keep the atmospheric concentration under some sort of
control. This carbon capture and sequestration
(CCS) technology does not presently exist.
3.)
Because of the inevitable delays in 1 and 2 we must use geoengineering
techniques to keep worldwide temperature and sea level to approximately the
present levels.
This web
site is only about number 3: Geoengineering.
This is not meant to be an alternative to number 1 and number 2. We have absolutely no choice if we are to
solve the problem of global warming. We
must put massive worldwide effort into all three and the first to produce
results will be geoengineering.
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It is becoming obvious to many people that
we can't avoid serious global warming and sea level rise by lifestyle
modifications alone. And so, in the words of the March 07 editorial in the
leading scientific journal, Nature, "Altering the Climate through
Geoengineering has Staged Something of a Comeback.”
Why haven't these ideas been in the current
debate? Again in the words of that
editorial: "The climate community views geoengineering with deep suspicion
or outright hostility " or as the president of the American Academy of
Sciences said "various individuals (in the climate academic community)
have opposed the publication of Paul Crutzen's paper for reasons that are not
scientific"
This occurred despite the fact that Paul
Crutzen had already saved the world once!
He got a Nobel prize for recognising the mechanism whereby CFCs destroy
the ozone layer.
Paul Crutzen’s new global cooling
suggestion is to simulate the effects of a volcanic eruption by burning a
sulphur compound in the stratosphere.
In the past 250 years there have been 13
large volcanic eruptions. Each of these
has caused a significant reduction in global temperature in the subsequent two
years. The eruption of Mount Pinatubo
in 1991 completely reversed all the man made global warming up to that time
until the products fell out in the atmosphere in 1993.
And, which is also important, there were no
disadvantages at ground level. Material
that gets into the stratosphere (above 30,000 ft.) stays there for a year or so
and then quickly drops to earth in rain when it drifts into the atmosphere
below the stratosphere.
My part in this is to suggest an easy way
of burning a sulphur compound by dissolving dimethyl sulphide in jet aviation
fuel. This would allow experimental
distribution of sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere from a high flying plane
such as a B-52.
Previously I have suggested adding tetra
ethyl silicate to aviation fuel to produce tiny particles of glass (silica or
silicon dioxide). These particles might
be more effective in reflecting sunlight than the sulphur products -- or they
might be less effective. Only by
experiment will we find out. See Diatoms below.
These experiments could literally be
started tomorrow on a very local scale.
If successful there are 75,000 commercial flights a day worldwide. Many of these are partially in the
stratosphere so the experiment could be extended to wide scale implementation
very quickly at negligible cost.
The world has quite enough problems for
this century without pretending that we can achieve impossible reductions in
emissions and rejecting simple technological solutions because of some
prejudice.
If you know anyone influential in airlines, climate research,
the oil industry etc., please would you pass this note on.
John Gorman. January 2007. gormans@waitrose.com
September 2009 Proposal for Research Grant
Poster for American Geophysical Union, San Francisco. December
07
Paper submitted for the Virgin Earth Challenge 2007
The evolution of an idea and experiments conducted so
far.
Tetra ethyl silicate. What it is and how to get
some.
Safety. If you are experimenting.
Global Cooling with reflective particles.
Volcanoes etc.
Tetra Ethyl Silicate in a Jet Engine