Global Warming
gregladen | November 14, 2007Environmental scientist David Keith talks about a cheap, effective, shocking solution to climate change: What if we injected a huge cloud of ash into the atmosphere, to deflect sunlight and heat? As an emergency measure to slow a melting ice cap, it could work. Keith discusses why it's a good idea, why it's a terrible one -- and who, despite the cost, might be tempted to use it.
gregladen | November 9, 2007This is the question asked in a current paper from PNAS that is available to you as an Open Access article.
Peaking profiles for achieving long-term temperature targets with more likelihood at lower costs
Abstract
How can dangerous interference with the climate system be avoided? Science can help decision-makers answer this political question. Earlier publications have focused on the probability of keeping global mean temperature change below certain thresholds by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations at particular levels. We compare the results of such "stabilization profiles" with a…
gregladen | November 8, 2007When discussing global warming (and more broadly, climate change), especially here in the Great White North, it is often quipped that a little global warming is not necessarily a bad thing. So what if cold regions get warmer? That would be good for growing more food, having a warmer winter, and so on. Also, when we note the very large "natural" climate changes and contrast this with what is happening now, some people conclude that human-induced global warming is small change and therefore unimportant.
There are two reasons why this is wrong.
The first reason, which we can discuss another…