SOLUTIONS TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
Road Blocks and Challenges
Do We Really Have a Problem?
First, a basic science lesson. CO2 is mostly a very good thing. Plants rely on it to grow. After absorbing it, they emit O2, which we need to breathe. Alarming people about CO2 is misleading. More trees and plants will offset a lot of CO2. Also, we have been dramatically reducing CO2 and other pollution over the past 20+ years. This has happened despite a dramatic increase in the number of people worldwide.
Weather cycles change from year to year and over time. When I went to college in the early ‘70’s, I remember it raining a lot in California during five months of winter. As I had to commute to school and walk all over campus, I was very aware of the amount of precipitation.
A Climate Emergency?
What you haven’t read or heard in the news is that climate science is NOT settled. First, many who make the claims base their claims on highly suspect models that were built with a lot of assumptions and not enough historical data. In science, when you are invested in an idea, you can easily (and possibly unconsciously) prove what you believe is true. Second, the issue has become more political than scientific, even as many have shown that proposed actions will cost economy-destroying amounts while having little impact. Third, while Europe is beginning to go back to natural gas and nuclear (and China is using whatever they want regardless of impact), the US refuses to exploit our significant resources, all of which have led to the dramatic reduction in “greenhouse gases.” Finally, the private sector is amazing in its ability to create amazing ideas to solve difficult problems. Scientists are again coming up with brilliant solutions, but are stymied by enviro-whackos who only support extreme “solutions.”
The independent foundation, Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL), has gathered 1152 signatures on their World Climate Declaration (WCD) which states that there is NO climate emergency. Their plain statement says that “there is no climate emergency even if you accept that CO2 is the main driver of climate change. The “cure” – getting rid of fossil fuels ASAP and replacing them with renewables – will probably be worse than the disease.” They note that climate has been in flux since the planet appeared. Carbon capturing devices are being created and other solutions will be created by the private sector. The government should probably stay out of it.
A Stymied Solution
Remember the ’91 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo? It pushed 20MM tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere and these particles reflected enough sunshine to lower the average global temperature by 0.5 degrees Celsius. Based on that data, scientists have been studying what is referred to as “solar geoengineering,” which amounts to using the Mt. Pinatubo discovery to control the sun’s impact.
Key to this idea is that you don’t need poisonous gases to have this impact. In 2021, Harvard scientists tried to experiment with a weather balloon seeded with calcium carbonate (chalk) over an arctic facility. Activist groups went nuts citing the catastrophic dangers that might occur from this small experiment. After these groups hyperbolized about the risk, the scientists and the Swedish government were shouted down.
However, the theory is a good one. Dispersing bright particles into the stratosphere where they could reflect sunlight back into space would be like a global sunscreen. Ten years before, the Brits had a similar idea, which was “cancelled” by Friends of the Earth, even as it was clear that the impact, if any, would be local.
But the protests are a “sunscreen” of their own. In fact, the worry of these environmental groups is that this process, should it be successful (the most likely outcome) would provide a cheap, easy to control and immediate resolution to the problem. In fact, if the models are wrong the other way, such that global warming might accelerate, we really need creative and effective (and cheap) solutions such as these. The link below this blog gives you the complete article by Ronald Bailey.
Even the National Academy of Sciences report, Reflecting Sunlight, states that this is a good idea. We have to insist our government “follow the science” here and ignore activists and politics. It might have been better if we could have invested more in basic science education for all, but we haven’t. Thus, it is easy for the Greta Thunbergs of the world to have outsize influence.
It's time to heed the science and find smart ways to control our climate without destroying our way of life.
(Written in Walnut Creek, CA during the heat dome of September 2022)
For every scientist you find who says we’re undergoing climate change there’s one who says “no we aren’t ”. I recall a few years ago a litany of over 400 scientists worldwide signed a letter to the UN saying in bold letters there is no climate crisis. Maybe there is and maybe there isn’t but our current knee jerk approach is incredibly irresponsible.