Plan B Post for May 8 2024
This week's free update on the chill people cooling the earth with geo-engineering.
This week, geo-engineering accelerated towards its tipping point, from hare-brained idea towards acceptance. (Oh, and, the Dubai floods weren’t the result of cloud seeding. Maybe.)
Washington Post
Opinion | Geo-engineering might happen. It needs study.
The Washington Post‘s editorial board —not just a guest writer— came right out and said that “temporarily cooling the planet might be worth trying…given the likelihood of future warming past any acceptable benchmark.”
MIT Technology Review
Why new proposals to restrict geo-engineering are misguided
We know for sure that we are the cause of climate change—and that it is exacerbating the dangers of heat waves, wildfires, flooding, famines, and storms that will inflict human suffering on staggering scales. If there are possible interventions that could limit that death and destruction, we have an obligation to evaluate them carefully, and to weigh any trade-offs with open and informed minds.
Nature
Thermosteric and dynamic sea level under solar geo-engineering
The IPCC's latest report says that if we keep doing things as usual, sea levels could rise by up to 2 meters by 2100 because of climate change. Researchers looked at two ways to help stop this by tweaking the climate: one method dims the sun a bit and the other involves spraying tiny particles in the stratosphere. These methods could cut the rise in sea levels by about 36-41%, especially along the coasts of places like North America, Japan, and the Arctic.
MIT Technology Review
The inadvertent geo-engineering experiment that the world is now shutting off
Sulfur in shipping fuel has been a massive, unintentional experiment in solar geo-engineering — and it’s stopping thanks to clean-air rules. Positioning intentional solar geo-engineering today as a means of replacing that old, cruder form offers a somewhat different mental framing for the concept.
North American Clean Energy
Neustark Enters Multi-Year Carbon Removal Agreement with NextGen CDR
Neustark, a Swiss company, has signed a long-term deal with NextGen CDR to provide carbon dioxide removal services across several European countries using a process that captures CO2 from sources like demolition concrete and stores it permanently in mineral waste.
Securities.io
Are Floods Being Caused Inadvertently by Geo-Engineering?
We know for sure that we are the cause of climate change—and that it is exacerbating the dangers of heat waves, wildfires, flooding, famines, and storms that will inflict human suffering on staggering scales. If there are possible interventions that could limit that death and destruction, we have an obligation to evaluate them carefully, and to weigh any trade-offs with open and informed minds.
Phys.org
Solar geo-engineering to cool the planet: Is it worth the risks?
A modicum of solar geo-engineering should be part of the climate policy portfolio, because it does help take the edge off unmitigated climate change. The portfolio should include adaptation and cutting CO2 emissions. SAI technology is not the sole saviour. That is absolutely clear.