News in Science

Climate may need emergency fix: report

Wednesday, 2 September 2009
ABC/Reuters

Humans may have to reset the earth's thermostat and develop new technologies if climate
talks fail, says Britain's top science academy.

The Royal Society's Geoengineering the climate report says geoengineering is no quick
fix, but may be needed to head off planetary catastrophe and deserves more research.

Political efforts to curb greenhouse gases are in the spotlight three months before a UN-
led meeting to decide on a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

"Nothing should divert us from the priority of reducing global carbon dioxide emissions
and ensuring that the December meeting in Copenhagen does lead to real progress," says
Royal Society president Professor Martin Rees.

He says growing interest in geoengineering was partly motivated by a "false hope of a

quick fix".

"But if such reductions achieve too little too late there will be surely pressure to
contemplate a plan B."

Britain's chief scientific adviser Professor John Beddington supports the report's
recommendations, which call for more research into geoengineering.

"They are part of the solution," he says.

Deflecting the sun

The report divides geoengineering technologies into two groups; those that remove the
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, and those which reflect
sunlight back into space.

It says such technologies are currently limited to the laboratory and calls for a 10-year,
100 million pound (A$195 million) research program - a 10-fold increase.

The report supports steps to remove CO2 from the air above others, because they
addressed the underlying problem of too many heat-trapping gases, and so were more
predictable and would fight not only climate change but also acidifying oceans.

1
In the event of an emergency where the earth suddenly pitched into a different, hotter
climate, the world may need to reflect back some sunlight, the report says.

One method may be shooting highly reflective aerosols into the atmosphere.

But the report warns that it could introduce a new influence on the earth's climate that is
less predictable.

"You could actually seriously and adversely impact one of the most critical weather
patterns on the planet," says lead author Professor John Shepherd.

'Off the hook'

In response to the report Professor John Buckeridge of RMIT University in Melbourne

says the focus should be on changing human behaviour, not geoengineering.

"Geoengineering has the potential to reap even greater havoc," he says. "What must be
immediately implemented are systems to reduce the rampant consumption of natural
resources, and the resultant pollution that our ever-growing population is responsible
for."

Greenpeace chief scientist Dr Doug Parr says the report will be seized upon by polluters.

Diana Bronson, spokesperson for Environmental watchdog ETC Group, agrees, saying
she is concerned that governments will use it to "get off the hook" when they meet in
Copenhagen.

"[Governments] will throw precious time and dollars at sci-fi fantasies, overlook
potentially devastating side effects and divert their attention from the urgent need to
reduce carbon emissions at source."

Christian S. Manuel III-11