Natural solutions to climate change

Abstract

Fifty years ago, humans harboured the hubristic idea that they could alter the weather and climate to their advantage, perhaps to prevent future ice ages or to induce rainfall in drought‐stricken regions. These high‐flying hopes were eventually doused by reality; today, we have the more humble objective of merely keeping the climate stable—in particular, mitigating the impact of greenhouse gases (GHGs). But this is an equally daunting task and one that necessitates political action and widespread cultural change, as well as scientific progress. Although progress on the political front is stalling—US President George W. Bush announced in April 2008 that he would postpone any measures to reduce the release of CO2 into the atmosphere until 2025 (Stolberg, 2008)—there is some optimism about using nature itself to achieve this goal. > …there has been increasing interest in biological methods of sequestering GHGs, especially because these techniques have the potential to produce large amounts of carbon‐neutral fuel… The challenge is twofold: to stabilize and reduce emissions, and to mop up excess GHGs released from the burning of fossil fuels. The aim is to return to the pre‐industrial—pre‐late‐eighteenth century—levels of the main anthropogenic GHGs: CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). However, this does not mean completely removing them from the atmosphere. In the absence of any GHGs, the mean global surface temperature would be about −18 °C, instead of the current 15 °C. In fact, natural GHGs make a considerable contribution to keeping the earth warm enough for life, with water vapour being responsible for around 50% of this extra warmth—although estimates vary from 35% to 66%. As human industrial and agricultural activities have a negligible impact on the levels of atmospheric water vapour, debates about how to mitigate climate change concentrate on the components that we can influence: …