GEOENGINEERING

Climate change has become a household issue nowadays. With the raising global temperature, causing virulent variation in weather patterns compared from the past and increasing sea level, climate change has become evident, most especially in communities and countries situated along coastal areas. Climate change has been blamed for the intensification of typhoons, longer drought, and desertification of some areas. It affects billions of people around the globe, causing inestimable damages to properties and loss of lives. It is so harmfulthat its issue has been brought to various global forums for discussions. Though some quarters of scientists and skeptics denies it existence and relevance to the changes in weather patterns, Climate change has been blamed by the majority of scientists and observers analyzing these various calamities that visited numbers of communities and countries. Considering these situations and their connections to climate change, scientists today propose mitigating measures on how man can deal with climate change. One of these measures is geoengineering. 

Climate change is the modification of the typical climate of the Earth. Each region and countries in the world has a distinctive climate, that is the averaged weather in a particular region. Philippines, for example, has a typical dry and wet climate. Climate change happens when this typical climates in various regions deviate from their ‘normal’ weather systems. Change may take place through an increase or decrease of usual rainfall, or change in warmness or coldness in a place in a given season. In a global scale, the Earth too suffers from climate change as the overall temperature of the Earth changes, or the change in the precipitation patterns.[1] Change in the Earth’s climate occurs naturally. In the past, the Earth’s climate had gone from cold to warm. These changes took place slowly, happening in span of millennia. But in recent times, scientists observed that the Earth’s climate changes in a drastic way, increasing by one degree Fahrenheit in the past 100 years. What could be the cause of this change? NASA states that:

Some causes of climate change are natural. These include changes in Earth's orbit and in the amount of energy coming from the sun. Ocean changes and volcanic eruptions are also natural causes of climate change. Most scientists think that recent warming can't be explained by nature alone. Most scientists say it's very likely that most of the warming since the mid-1900s is due to the burning of coal, oil and gas. Burning these fuels is how we produce most of the energy that we use every day. This burning adds heat-trapping gases, such as carbon dioxide, into the air. These gases are called greenhouse gases.[2]

In a more vivid and picturesque way, one can say that through climate change, the Earth is heat-up by the Sun due to the heat trapped on the Earth surface; heat blocked by greenhouse gases from bouncing back to the outer space. The greenhouse gases serve as blankets of the Earth, heating it up through the Sun’s heats. The trapped heat on the surface of the causes the melting of snow and ice caps in the North, rise in the sea level, causing floods through stronger typhoons and hurricanes, droughts and heat waves. 

Though some scientists and observers would opine otherwise, the fact of climate change is evidently manifested through numerous signs one can see in climatic phenomena in recent times. The global temperature has risen by 1.4 degree Fahrenheit and is expected to increase by two (2) to eleven degrees over the next century. Though the change seems to be little, this can proved to be lethal as it can trigger dangerous shift in climate patterns. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has this to say:

The evidence is clear. Rising global temperatures have been accompanied by changes in weather and climate. Many places have seen changes in rainfall, resulting in more floods, droughts, or intense rain, as well as more frequent and severe heat waves. The planet's oceans and glaciers have also experienced some big changes - oceans are warming and becoming more acidic, ice caps are melting, and sea levels are rising. As these and other changes become more pronounced in the coming decades, they will likely present challenges to our society and our environment.[3]

The change that is taking place on the Earth’s climate is primarily rooted in man’s various activities in the past centuries, starting from the era of Industrialization. Human activities release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This is through the burning of fossil fuel by energy plants, factories, automobiles and other machines. Deforestations, industrial processes and agricultural activities contribute too to the release of greenhouse gases. These gases placed in the Earth’s atmosphere prevents the sun light from  springing back to the space outside the earth. Though this phenomenon maybe natural, the excessive building-up of greenhouse gases deposits on the Earth’s atmosphere and the trapping of excessive heat causes the extreme change in the earth’s climate.

The ascertained fact of climate change caused by man pushed scientist and researchers to look for viable solution to prevent the continuing increase in global temperature, and avoid its catastrophic effects. Geoengineering is one of the solutions tendered. It contests that through this technology the change in earth’s climate may be hauled down. 

Geoengineering primarily deals with the man’s enhancement of nature to mitigate the progress of climate change. It is the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems to counteract climate change.[4] As mentioned above, the primary cause of change in climate is due to the heat trapped by the excessive greenhouse gases on Earth’s atmosphere. Geoengineering attempts to address the problem of excessive greenhouse gases deposit on the Earth’s atmosphere.  This technology proposes two ways through which this goal can be realized, namely  Solar Radiation Management (SRM) or Solar Geoengineering and Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) or Carbon Geoengineering.

Solar Radiation Management (SRM) or Solar Geoengineering is the pumping of sulfates into the atmosphere. The pumped sulfates can then serve as the earth’s shield from the heat of the Sun. The layers of sulfates on Earth’s atmosphere can prevent the entry of excessive heat coming from the Sun. Solar Geoengineering is based on the investigations on the effects of the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. The eruption released 20 million tons of sulfur that were dispersed around the globe’s atmosphere.  This phenomenon shield the Earth from the heat of the Sun. It caused the drop of global temperature to less than one(1) Fahrenheit for one whole year. This phenomenon is seen as antidote to the climate change, to the warming of earth’s surface. Scientists, led by David Keith, propose the simulation of the same event in a global scale, aimed to shield the earth from the harmful rays of the Sun. Nicola Jones describes the processes as follows:

A fleet of ten Gulf stream jets could be used to annually inject 25,000 tons of sulfur — as finely dispersed sulfuric acid, for example — into the lower stratosphere. That would be ramped up to a million tons of sulfur per year by 2070, in order to counter about half of the world’s warming from greenhouse gases. The idea is to combine such a scheme with emissions cuts, and keep it running for about twice as long as it takes for CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere to level out. [5]

Through the solar engineering, the entry of the Sun’s rays would be mitigated. Keith projects that the Earth would warm-up to one degree Celsius, instead of two degrees at the end of the century. 

Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) or Carbon Geoengineering, as the archetypal definition of geoengineering, is designed to interfere to Earth’s climatic system at present, particularly dealing with the reduction of greenhouse gases. It would realize such end by removing, capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere to underground and underwater repositories. The CDR technology can be fulfilled either through land-based method, or ocean-based method. The land-based method involves carbon filtration systems directed to the ground storage.  The ocean-based method employs the use of substances such as iron, nitrogen and phosphorus to fertilize the ocean surface. The fertilization of ocean surface will encourage the growth of algae that would feed on carbon dioxide in the ocean and eventually in the atmosphere.[6] Through the reduction and eventual removal of Carbon Dioxide and other dangerous greenhouse gases, the heat coming from the Sun can freely bounce back to the outer space. Thus, such process can drastically alleviate the warming of the globe, albeit it would take a lot of time and resources before the process’ effects can be felt. 

Geoengineering promises a fix to the worsening climate change, through Solar Radiation Management (SRM) or Solar Geoengineering and Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) or Carbon Geoengineering. Both aims to reduce the amount global temperature either by limiting the entry of searing heat of the sun, or by removing the suffocating carbon dioxide deposit on Earth’s atmosphere. However, both mitigating measures face ethical questions as they are on the verge of full-blown development.

These Geoengineering technologies may be good in their known intent and motives; that is the mitigation of climate change. However, the means they intend to use to reach such end istainted with ethical questions that stand against the advancement of these technologies and their subsequent application.  

The extent of research done in SRM and CDR is questioned. The extent of research would indicate the extent of knowledge about them, particularly their consequences, should they be applied. Plenty of questions are raised on the SRM. How small would the sulfuric particles be? Would they be so small that they might be inhaled human? Would these particles not add-up to the air pollutants that at present pester various mega-cities around the globe?  Who would determine the world’s ‘thermostat’? Would such issue on the world’s ‘thermostat’ not ignite conflicts between powerful nations? Does geoengineering would real address the root causes of the problem of climate change, or would it simply cure the symptoms of a greater problem?

Through these barrage of questions, one would realize that it is not only the means that geoengineering would employ that is questionable. Even the end and the very problem it would like to address prove to be problematic and irrelevant to the real situation of man. Why should one focus on alleviating the symptoms instead of curing directly a curable disease? Why should one focus on mitigating the effects of climate change when one should pay attention on its primary cause? Why is there excessive carbon deposit in the atmosphere and other greenhouse gases? Why is there too much and too rapid industrialization? Why is there so much greed and consumerism in world politics andeconomy? How does man view and understand the earth where he lived in, in relation with him? Why is there rampant disregard on man’s integral connection with the entire cosmos?Geoengineeringis manifestations of man’s avoidance of the real problem that is at hand; rapid ethically-unscrutinized technological progress.

Research and knowledge about geoengineering is limited at present. As discussed above the extent of information know about this technology is limited, particular on the consequences of the release of sulfate aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere. Though research and studies continue, they have to be done in a pre-cautionary manner, guided by the ethical approach paripassu. Geoengineering may be the solution to the changing global climate, but let it not be a technological fix that would only beget another problem in the near future.

Geoengineering, should it be implemented, would only encourage the continuation and progress of ill practices that contribute to the increase of greenhouse gases deposit on Earth’s atmosphere; the generation of energy through burning of fossil fuels and operations of coal plants, unlimited mining and drilling of resources. After all, why should man trim-down his carbon emission if he can be shielded from the heat of the Sun? Trimming-down one’s carbon emission has a great detrimental repercussion in the economic order, as major industries are dependent on fossil fuels and coals. Geoengineering can possibly tolerate the ill practices of man in relation to climate change as it guarantees man with a protection from the harmful heat of the Sun. This technology can only serve as a fertile ground to further grow consumerism and economic greed.

Though man is the center of every development and technology, he must not be viewed separately from the entire cosmos. Man is a part of the cosmos. However, he is not the be all and end all of the created reality. Thus, development in this world must not only geared towards man’s well being but should also include that of the environment and of the future generations. Man’s anthropocentric worldview had brought this world to its present dismal state, with climate change as one of its consequences. In dealing with climate change, plans should consider the environmental impacts that man’s technology would be introducing, and the consequences it stores for the generations that are to come. Plans have to be environmental and intergenerational.   

The climate change is a real problem that man faces today. Geoengineering poses as a prospective solution to this pressing problem. But a closer look to the present state of research in this technology, it can only prove itself, for now, as a technological fix that can beget another problem. Tracing the root cause of climate change and addressing such can be a more viable solution in dealing with it; rapid unethical technological progress propelled by man’s greed and consumerist mindset. Climate change has to be addressed holistically, involving the environmental component in an intergenerational plan. This can be a long and slow process, compared to the instant fix that geonengineering offers. But this plan can prove to be more effective and viable at it address the very root cause of the problem; man’s anthropocentric attitude towards this world. 

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[1]What Are Climate and Climate Change? Accessed from https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/what-is-climate-change-58.html#.VYZWqWSqqko on June 21, 2015.

[2]What Are Climate and Climate Change? Accessed from https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/what-is-climate-change-58.html#.VYZWqWSqqko on June 21, 2015.

[3]Climate Change: Basic Information Accessed from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/ on June 21, 2015.

[4]What Is Geoengineering? Accessed from http://www.geoengineering.ox.ac.uk/what-is-geoengineering/what-is-geoengineering/ on June 21, 2015.

[5]Nicola Jones, Solar Geoengineering: Weighing Costs of Blocking the Sun’s Rays, accessed from http://e360.yale.edu/feature/solar_geoengineering_weighing_costs_of_blocking_the_suns_rays/2727/ on June 21, 2015.

[6] Phil Anderson, CarbonDioxideRemoval, accessed from http://www.thecarbontree.com/geoengineering-part-4-carbon-dioxide-removal/ on June 21, 2015.