Something I don't think I've seen mentioned much when the topic of geoengineering has come up: China. They are large, technologically advanced, economically and militarily powerful, willing to act...
Something I don't think I've seen mentioned much when the topic of geoengineering has come up: China. They are large, technologically advanced, economically and militarily powerful, willing to act outside of international norms, greatly concerned about internal stability, and they could face "unsurvivable heatwaves" directly affecting hundreds of millions. If China feels it is facing an existential threat I absolutely believe they will have the will and ability to unilaterally attempt large-scale geoengineering.
And really, who could blame them. I don't mean this post to be in any way anti-China. My point is more that when the topic of geoengineering comes up there's this implicit assumption that it's something that "we" (read: the United States) could choose to deploy as a last resort if it benefits them. But, we all share an atmosphere without borders. If the situation is dire enough we won't necessarily all get a say in how geoengineering is used.
First paragraph: Note: the ugly token in the link is necessary, sorry. edit: Here is an easier to read Guardian piece on this. Radical proposal to artificially cool Earth's climate could be safe,...
First paragraph:
Solar geoengineering (SG) has the potential to restore average surface temperatures by increasing planetary albedo, but this could reduce precipitation. Thus, although SG might reduce globally aggregated risks, it may increase climate risks for some regions. Here, using the high-resolution forecast- oriented low ocean resolution (HiFLOR) model—which resolves tropical cyclones and has an improved representation of present-day precipitation extremes—alongside models from the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP), we analyse the fraction of locations that see their local climate change exacerbated or moderated by SG. Rather than restoring temperatures, we assume that SG is applied to halve the warming produced by doubling CO2 (half-SG). In HiFLOR, half-SG offsets most of the CO2-induced increase of simulated tropical cyclone intensity. Moreover, neither tem-perature, water availability, extreme temperature nor extreme precipitation are exacerbated under half-SG when averaged over any Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Extremes (SREX) region. Indeed, for both extreme precipitation and water availability, less than 0.4% of the ice-free land surface sees exacerbation. Thus, while concerns about the inequality of solar geoengineering impacts are appropriate, the quantitative extent of inequality may be overstated.
Note: the ugly token in the link is necessary, sorry.
Something I don't think I've seen mentioned much when the topic of geoengineering has come up: China. They are large, technologically advanced, economically and militarily powerful, willing to act outside of international norms, greatly concerned about internal stability, and they could face "unsurvivable heatwaves" directly affecting hundreds of millions. If China feels it is facing an existential threat I absolutely believe they will have the will and ability to unilaterally attempt large-scale geoengineering.
And really, who could blame them. I don't mean this post to be in any way anti-China. My point is more that when the topic of geoengineering comes up there's this implicit assumption that it's something that "we" (read: the United States) could choose to deploy as a last resort if it benefits them. But, we all share an atmosphere without borders. If the situation is dire enough we won't necessarily all get a say in how geoengineering is used.
First paragraph:
Note: the ugly token in the link is necessary, sorry.
edit: Here is an easier to read Guardian piece on this. Radical proposal to artificially cool Earth's climate could be safe, new study claims.