Geoengineering Research Articles

Ethics of climate engineering: Don’t forget technology has an ethical aspect too

Climate change may well be the most important issue of the 21st century and the world’s response, in the form of ‘Climate Engineering’, is therefore of equal pre-eminent importance. However, while there are technological challenges, there are equally just as important ethical challenges that these technologies also generate. Governments, funding agencies and non-governmental organisations increasingly recognise the importance of incorporating ethics into the development of emerging technologies (for example, within the EU draft legislation on AI). As the world faces the global challenge of climate change there are urgent efforts to develop strategies so that responses to the climate problems do not reproduce more of the same. Ethical values from the onset are fundamental to this process and need highlighting. Hence, this paper analyses a series of ethical codes, framework and guidelines of the new emerging technologies of climate engineering (CE) through a review of both published academic literature and grey literature from either industry, government, and non-governmental (NGO) organisations. This paper was developed as part of a collaboration with international partners from TechEthos (TechEthos receives funding from the EU H2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 101006249; Ethics of Emerging Technologies), an EU-funded project that deals with the ethics of the new and emerging technologies anticipated to have high socio-economic impact. Our findings have identified the following ethical considerations including autonomy, freedom, integrity, human rights and privacy in the developmental process of climate engineering, while a poverty of ethical values reflecting dignity and trust were noted.

Energy absorbancy and freezing-temperature tunability of NaCl solutions during ice formation

Freezing-thawing cycling of salt solutions is ubiquitously important to fields varying from biochemistry to agriculture, climate, and geological engineering. However, understanding the dynamics of energy exchange and freezing-temperature TN shift during phase transition of the concentrated solutions remains elusive despite intensive investigations since the discovery of Homeister series in 1888. Here we address this issue by focusing on the performance of the hydrogen bond (O:HO) in the fraction fS molecules of the hydrating supersolid phase and in the remaining fraction fO molecules of the pristine phase during NaCl solution ice formation. The supersolid formation is related to the effect of ionic polarization that shortens and stiffens the HO bond, while lengthening and weakening the O:H non-bonding interactions in the hydration cells. The supersolid phase is gel-like, less dense, viscoelastic, and mechanically and thermally stable. We demonstrate that the polarization-weakening of the O:H non-bonding interactions of the supersolid phase reduces the TN of the solution and that the HO cooling contraction in the quasisolid (QS) phase of the pristine water absorbs energy during the Liquid-QS-Ice transition of solution. At fS = 1, neither TN nor energy absorption is resolved within the range of 273 ± 20 K. The least saturation number of molecules is 10 per pair of Na+ and Cl− ions. These findings shall help to develop solutions with tunable TN for practical applications and to understand the mechanism of energy exchange during phase transition in the temperature and time domains.

Penerapan Teknologi Budidaya Tanaman Stroberi Di Desa Pangkalan Kabupaten Indramayu

The geographical condition of Indramayu, which is in the lowlands, is not the right land for cultivating strawberry plants. But it is not impossible for this plant to grow and develop well. The purpose of this community service program is to provide technical guidance to improve the knowledge and skills of Pangkalan Village young people in cultivating strawberry plants by applying climate engineering technology. The equipment given in this activity is water cooling, air conditioning, temperature and humidity control, and spray machines. This activity can be said to be successful as seen by the skills of the participants in managing tools and growing and developing strawberry plants well.

Environmental Geopolitics of Climate Engineering Proposals in the IPCC 5th Assessment Report

Environmental geopolitics offers an analytical approach that considers how environmental themes are brought into the service of geopolitical agendas. Of particular concern are claims about environment-related security and risk and the justification of actions (or inactions) proposed to deal with those claims. Environmental geopolitical analysis focuses on geographical knowledge and how that knowledge is generated and applied to stabilize specific understandings of the world. Climate engineering is a realm in which certain kinds of geographical knowledge, in the form of scientific interpretations of environmental interactions, are utilized to support a selective agenda that, despite claims about benefiting people and environments on a global scale, may be shown to reinforce uneven relationships of power as well as patterns of injustice. This paper focuses on how the IPCC AR5 discusses and portrays climate engineering. This particular conversation is significant, since the IPCC is widely recognized as reflecting current, international science and understanding of climate change processes and possible responses. We demonstrate an initial, environmental geopolitical analysis of this portrayal and discussion around climate engineering proposals by observing how the role and meaning of environmental features is limited, how human agency and impact in these scenarios is selective, and how insufficient attention is paid to spatial dimensions and impacts of these proposals. This paper contributes to a larger conversation about why it matters how we engage in discussion about climate impacts and issues; a central argument is that it is vital that we consider these proposed plans in terms of what they aim to secure, for whom, how and where.

In search of weakened resolve: Does climate-engineering awareness decrease individuals’ commitment to mitigation?

As climate predictions become more dire, it is increasingly clear that society cannot rely on mitigation alone. In response, climatologists and engineers have been developing climate-engineering technology to directly intervene on the climate through strategies such as solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal. While these technologies have some encouraging features, they also involve risk on many dimensions. One behavioral risk that concerns many observers is the possibility that the prominence of climate-engineering scenarios could decrease the public's commitment to mitigation, a concern variously described as moral hazard or weakened resolve. Across 8 experiments (N = 2514) we tested whether exposure to naturalistic information about climate-engineering technology decreases individuals' commitment to mitigation efforts. We did not find compelling evidence of strong or reliable effects. We draw from motivational theory to contextualize our findings in a literature characterized by mixed results, and we propose new directions for behavioral research on the weakened-resolve/moral-hazard concern with respect to climate engineering.

Large scale control of surface ozone by relative humidity observed during warm seasons in China

Rising air pollution by surface ozone (O3) in China has induced extensive efforts to control ozone generation in major urban and industrial areas, yet mechanisms ruling the ozone production and loss are not well understood. In particular, ozone levels are strongly influenced by meteorological factors such as relative humidity, but this has been explored only in local situations, and the effect of relative humidity on ozone levels in warm seasons on a large scale in China is still unknown. Here we studied surface ozone, relative humidity, temperature, and other meteorological variables in 74 major cities in China during 2017–2018, focusing on the warm seasons in seven regions. Results show that ozone levels decrease with increasing relative humidity in all cities, with an average correlation coefficient of − 0.58, ranging from − 0.17 in Zhangjiakou to − 0.84 in Hengshui. At high relative humidity levels, above 75%, average ozone levels ranged from 44.6 to 122.5 μg m−3, which is lower than Chinese quality threshold of hourly average ozone level of 200 μg m−3. The decreases of ozone with relative humidity were more pronounced at high temperature, above 30 °C, than below 25 °C. The increases of ozone with temperature were more pronounced at low relative humidity, below 40%. Overall, our findings reveal that mechanisms ruling surface ozone levels are similar on a large scale. This is promising to design common methods of climate engineering to protect human health.

A leap of Green faith: the religious discourse of Socio-Ecological Care as an Earth system governmentality

ABSTRACT The Anthropocene is fundamentally altering concepts of human agency and responsibility in the governance of the Earth system. These concepts are paramount in discussions about governing deliberate interventions into the global climate – often referred to as ‘climate engineering’. Reflections on what it might mean for humanity to ‘play God’ by controlling the climate have brought religious knowledge to bear in these discussions. Using climate engineering as a paradigmatic example of human interventions which may come to define the Anthropocene, this paper presents a sociology-of-knowledge discourse analysis of interviews with environmentally active multi-faith leaders and scholars. Showing how green religious discourse provides a blueprint for a governmentality of Socio-Ecological Care (SEC), the paper argues that religious knowledge has a role to play alongside other global systems of knowledge in reconceptualising the who, what, why and how of responsible and sustainable Earth system governance in the Anthropocene.

If humans design the planet: A call for psychological scientists to engage with climate engineering.

As efforts to control climate change gain momentum, so too does the possibility that some global actor(s) will deploy one or more forms of climate engineering. Climate engineering refers to large-scale and deliberate activities intended to change either the carbon-balance or energy-balance of the planet. Climate engineering approaches are untested, involve deep uncertainty, and have far-reaching consequences. Nevertheless, many scientists expect that, relative to conventional mitigation approaches, some climate-engineering approaches will prove less expensive and will require less coordination. They will also have more potential for unilateral deployment. Decisions to pursue climate engineering involve several psychosocial dimensions related to attitude and preference formation, decision making under uncertainty, interpersonal coordination, and health and well-being. Even the prospect of climate engineering could affect norms, goals, and beliefs. The field of psychological science should prepare to help society responsibly consider climate engineering alongside more conventional climate-change responses. This article lays out some initial questions and issues a call to action. It aims to provide common ground for a conversation between climatologists, policymakers, psychological scientists, and members of the public on the important behavioral touchpoints of climate engineering. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

An Approach to Scientific and Legislative Governance of Solar Radiation Modification Research in the United States

The climate crisis requires immediate, rapid, and responsible action across all sectors. Without implementation of aggressive mitigation strategies, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that we will fail to remain below the catastrophic global warming threshold of 1.5°C. Climate engineering technologies, such as carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification (SRM), have been proposed as mitigation strategies, but have not been deployed at scale. In addition to the scaling problems, SRM technologies, particularly stratospheric aerosol injection, have faced criticism over ethical implications of their implementation. The United Nations (UN) efforts to introduce international governance over SRM have been blocked by several countries, including the United States (US). Meanwhile, domestic researchers in the US have independently pursued small-scale experiments. The effects of these experiments remain uncertain, yet, if scaled, extend to non-consenting countries, including those already more susceptible to the climate crisis. We recommend that the US (1) stop blocking the UN from pursuing research into the impacts of SRM to allow for equitable governance options to be explored and (2) establish a national advisory committee on solar geoengineering.

Learning in the Anthropocene

While the precautionary principle may have offered a sound basis for managing environmental risk in the Holocene, the depth and width of the Anthropocene have made precaution increasingly untenable. Not only have many ecosystems already been damaged beyond natural recovery, achieving a sustainable long-term global trajectory now seem to require ever greater measures of proactionary risk-taking, in particular in relation to the growing need for climate engineering. At the same time, different optical illusions, arising from temporary emissions reductions due to the COVID-19 epidemic and the local deployment of seemingly “green” small-scale renewable energy sources, tend to obscure worsening global trends and reinforce political disinterest in developing high-energy technologies that would be more compatible with universal human development and worldwide ecological restoration. Yet, given the lack of feedback between the global and the local level, not to mention the role of culture and values in shaping perceptions of “sustainability”, the necessary learning may end up being both epistemologically and politically difficult. This paper explores the problem of finding indicators suitable for measuring progress towards meaningful climate action and the restoration of an ecologically vibrant planet. It is suggested that such indicators are essentially political as they reflect, not only different assessments of technological feasibility, but orientations towards the Enlightenment project.

GIMMS NDVI3g+ (1982–2015) response to climate change and engineering activities along the Qinghai–Tibet Railway

Restricted by cold, drought and high altitude natural environments, vegetation ecological environment of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is fragile and difficult to repair when damaged. The purpose of this research is to reveal the characteristic of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in direct impact area and ecological background area response to the engineering activities and global climate changes along Qinghai–Tibet railway. A framework was constructed by integrating a Gaussian fitting model, a buffer analysis, a trend analysis, a correlation analysis and a regression analysis method. The advantages of this framework are (1) Exploration of the impact of human and natural factors on the local vegetation ecological environment in pre-, co-, and post-construction of the railway; (2) Investigation of the time and extent of the impact of engineering activities on the plateau ecological environment; (3) Identify the contribution of climate change and engineering activities to changes of vegetation index. The framework was evaluated with GIMMS (Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies) and MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) NDVI from 1982 to 2001–2018. Results demonstrated that (1) Annual NDVI of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway was highly responsive to climate change and engineering activities, and shown a downward trend, upward trend for under construction and in operation period respectively. (2) Engineering activities of the Qinghai–Tibet Railway had a significant impact on vegetation along the route. Annual NDVI growth rate of ‘core area’ and ‘background buffer’ are quite different in pre-construction, under construction and in operation time. (3) Climate change along the Qinghai–Tibet Railway was significantly be responded to global changes during the 34 years. The air temperature and precipitation growth rate of the Golmud South–mountain Pass to Lhasa (GSPL) route is substantial lower than that of the Xining to Golmud South–mountain Pass (XGSP) route. Research results recommend that information on vegetation ecological environment is exploited by government agencies to ensure responsible ecological safety, traffic safety and sustainable development along the Qinghai–Tibet railway.

Toward practical stratospheric aerosol albedo modification: Solar-powered lofting.

Many climate intervention (CI) methods have been proposed to offset greenhouse gas-induced global warming, but the practicalities regarding implementation have not received sufficient attention. Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) involves introducing large amounts of CI material well within the stratosphere to enhance the aerosol loading, thereby increasing reflection of solar radiation. We explore a delivery method termed solar-powered lofting (SPL) that uses solar energy to loft CI material injected at lower altitudes accessible by conventional aircraft. Particles that absorb solar radiation are dispersed with the CI material and heat the surrounding air. The heated air rises, carrying the CI material to the stratosphere. Global model simulations show that black carbon aerosol (10 microgram per cubic meter) is sufficient to quickly loft CI material well into the stratosphere. SPL could make SAI viable at present, is also more energy efficient, and disperses CI material faster than direct stratospheric injection.

A new index to determine the optimal width of sand control project

Abstract There are several thousands of kilometers of traffic lines in desert regions that are facing blown-sand related difficulties, such as sand burial. When designing a sand control project, the width of it should be specific for different regions due to differences in regional climate, sand source richness, and wind intensity. Currently, there is no universally applicable method to judge the proper width value. The value should ensure an optimization between protection effect and economic cost. After investigating 24 sand control projects in North China and comparing several common equations for climate and wind force, we propose a new sand control index to estimate an optimal width for sand control measures and meet 5 levels of protection expectation from failed to excellent, which can reflect the characteristics of regional climate, local sand richness, and the direction of the protected facility. Threshold values for the 5 levels are decided as 13.5, 27.5, 48, and 100. This new index is validated by applying to the two stages of sand control project of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, and the results agree well with the level-5 and level-2 control effects before and after the second stage of project. This index can be applied in a variety of situations, as it covers a wide range of climatic regions and engineering conditions.

Effects of climate engineering on agriculture.

Effects of climate engineering on agriculture.

Substantial Climate Response outside the Target Area in an Idealized Experiment of Regional Radiation Management

Radiation management (RM) has been proposed as a conceivable climate engineering (CE) intervention to mitigate global warming. In this study, we used a coupled climate model (MPI-ESM) with a very idealized setup to investigate the efficacy and risks of CE at a local scale in space and time (regional radiation management, RRM) assuming that cloud modification is technically possible. RM is implemented in the climate model by the brightening of low-level clouds (solar radiation management, SRM) and thinning of cirrus (terrestrial radiation management, TRM). The region chosen is North America, and we simulated a period of 30 years. The implemented sustained RM resulted in a net local radiative forcing of −9.8 Wm−2 and a local cooling of −0.8 K. Surface temperature (SAT) extremes (90th and 10th percentiles) show negative anomalies in the target region. However, substantial climate impacts were also simulated outside the target area, with warming in the Arctic and pronounced precipitation change in the eastern Pacific. As a variant of RRM, a targeted intervention to suppress heat waves (HW) was investigated in further simulations by implementing intermittent cloud modification locally, prior to the simulated HW situations. In most cases, the intermittent RRM results in a successful reduction of temperatures locally, with substantially smaller impacts outside the target area compared to the sustained RRM.

Splitting Climate Engineering Governance: How Problem Structure Shapes Institutional Design

AbstractThis article adds conceptual discipline to a well‐rehearsed but largely intuitive argument within the climate engineering community that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM) should be treated separately – ‘split’ rather than ‘lumped’ – in policy discussions. Specifically, we build the first, theoretically derived argument for ‘splitting’. We do this by engaging a set of theoretical insights from the international relations literature, having to do with the relationship between problem structure and institutional design. Centrally, we apply some key elements of problem structure – which allows us to compare policy issues along variables such as geographic scope, costs, and actor number and asymmetries – to the cases of SRM and CDR. By analyzing their problem structures, we demonstrate that SRM and CDR are different in ways that are likely to yield different state preferences for institutional design, and thus policy proposals that split SRM and CDR are more likely to be adopted by states. In short, we construct a theoretical argument for ‘splitting’ SRM and CDR governance in global policy discussions.

Timing of Sierra Nevadan stadial/interstadial variations from 15 to 56 ka

We summarize proxy evidence for stadial/interstadial variability recorded in sediments of three Great Basin lakes – Owens, Mono, and Pyramid. These lakes lie along the eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada Ice Sheet and record environmental variability associated with it. We have applied new paleomagnetic secular variation measurements (PSV) to more carefully date the lake environmental variability. We have also used PSV to correlate the Great Basin environmental variability to North Atlantic records of oxygen isotope variability. We see evidence for 25 cycles in stadial/interstadial variability of the Great Basin lakes. These cycles can be correlated among all three lakes and are largely synchronous. We can also date the individual stadial and interstadial intervals present in the three lakes. They have an average cycle duration of 1430 ± 530 years. But, the cycle durations in all three lakes vary coherently from less than 1000 years to more than 2000 years between 20 and 56 ka. The variability in cycle duration suggests internal variability in the global climate engine as the cause of the observed variability rather than some (presumably more periodic) external forcing. We also correlate interstadial D/O cycles 2–16 recorded in the Atlantic Ocean region with interstadial intervals in the Great Basin lakes. These intervals are largely synchronous between the two regions. We see evidence of 5 more Great Basin lake interstadials synchronous with un-numbered light δ18O intervals in the Atlantic oxygen isotope stratigraphy. This suggests some kind of linkage between the North Atlantic and North Pacific climate variability during the period 15–56 ka.

Values in early-stage climate engineering: The ethical implications of “doing the research”

Calls for research on climate engineering have increased in the last two decades, but there remains widespread agreement that many climate engineering technologies (in particular, forms involving global solar radiation management) present significant ethical risks and require careful governance. However, proponents of research argue, ethical restrictions on climate engineering research should not be imposed in early-stage work like in silico modeling studies. Such studies, it is argued, do not pose risks to the public, and the knowledge gained from them is necessary for assessing the risks and benefits of climate engineering technologies. I argue that this position, which I call the “broad research-first” stance, cannot be maintained in light of the entrance of nonepistemic values in climate modeling. I analyze the roles that can be played by nonepistemic political and ethical values in the design, tuning, and interpretation of climate models. Then, I argue that, in the context of early-stage climate engineering research, the embeddedness of values will lead to value judgments that could harm stakeholder groups or impose researcher values on non-consenting populations. I conclude by calling for more robust reflection on the ethics and governance of early-stage climate engineering research.

Precipitation and temperature response to sea salt injection into low marine clouds over West Africa

Sea salt injection into the tropical marine clouds is evaluated for its potentials to reduce the negative impact of the prevailing global warming over West Africa. Radiative forcing is determined as the intercept of the regression of response of radiation parameter to that of surface air temperature. The seasonal responses of temperature and precipitation to geoengineering over West Africa are analysed using temperature and precipitation outputs from IPSL-M5A-LR with three different forcing scenarios. The three scenarios are historical greenhouse gas concentrations, Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 W/m2 scenario (RCP4.5) and combination of RCP4.5 and geoengineering forcing (sea salt climate engineering, G5). 20-year means in the middle of G5 (2045–2064) are considered for the future period, and the historical climatology from 1986 to 2005 is used. Net downward flux and top of atmosphere outgoing shortwave radiation have negative forcing only at the western Sahel. The G5 reduces the warming in the RCP4.5 scenario over the whole of West Africa. It also shifts ITCZ northward with respect to RCP4.5, thereby increasing wetness over most of the land areas. The areas with wetness response have anomalous westerly with respect to RCP 4.5 and latitudinal location below anomalous easterly wind. Results show that G5 is effective in reducing the RCP4.5 projected warming up to 1.2 K and increasing wetness over most land areas. The G5 has a damaging effect on the temperature pattern at the southern ocean and coastal areas, while it has damaging effect on precipitation patterns at some parts of the Sahel.

Effects of opinion statements on laypeople's acceptance of a climate engineering technology. Comparing the source credibility of researchers, politicians and a citizens' jury

To examine the influence of different actors' fictitious statements about research and deployment of stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), we conducted an online survey in Germany. Participants assess researchers and a citizens' jury to be more credible than politicians. Credibility has a strong positive effect on SAI acceptance in both pro-SAI and contra-SAI conditions. Reading the statement against SAI-deployment led to significantly lower acceptance scores compared to reading the pro-statement. However, the difference between messages was unexpectedly small, indicating that the message content was not fully adopted while underlying traits and attitudes mainly shaped acceptance even despite, or because of, low levels of knowledge.