Well this is alarming at a Hollywood disaster movie kinda level. Seems to me there are three basic responses to this news. 1) Stick your head in the ground and ignore it because it sounds too crazy and scary so it must be untrue 2) Freak the hell out and lose all hope 3) Maintain alarmed composure. Realise that some big changes are going to need to be made and that decarbonising our entire economy is all very nice (and necessary for other reasons) but is essentially no match for the natural time-bomb we have triggered. And most urgently need to start investing in new tech that allows what might be referred to as responsible geo-engineering. No prizes for guessing my recommended response. Like it or not, geo-engineering is going to become one of the new defining environmental discussions of the next decade. In it lies a whole heap of uncertainties, possibilities of abuse of power... and our only hope of survival - which is why humanity absolutely categorically will embark upon it. So the question is how? Well direct mopping up of CO2 via artificial trees is probably a good approach. turns out we can actually do this and the tech is likely to get better. Even better than that? we make carbon that we scrubbed from the atmosphere the basis of our material industry by turning it into graphene and related nanotech materials to replace all plastics and metals. This is something that is already being seriously researched... Just remember, despite the terror that this recent news may induce, humans are really bloody ingenious in a tight spot. We might create knock-on effects but we do have a chance to muddle through until we create quantum computers capable of accurate modelling and management of earth systems, to reign in the early poke it and see what happens geo-engineering attempts... So thats my best case projection. Rosy isnt it!
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 13:34:30 +0000
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