In “Time to tinker with the climate?”, a feature piece (sadly, but predictably, not online) on p19 of The Canberra Times print edition of 31 December 2011, Michael Richardson outlines the arguments for geo-engineering approaches to the climate problem.
Unfortunately, the piece covered some of the issues with the notion of injecting particles into the upper atmosphere to artificially cool the climate, but neglected to mention arguably the worst problem with this idea: ocean acidification.
Our carbon emissions have already caused the oceans to become 30% more acidic than they were before industrialisation, and without meaningful cuts in emissions, oceans could be more than 300% more acidic by 2100. This is a little publicised but desperately serious problem that threatens many forms of ocean life – potentially, the entire marine food chain.
Spraying sulphate particles into the atmosphere does nothing to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere, and so does not address ocean acidification at all. It is not a sustainable solution, and apart from the operational risks – which are huge – it has the potential to lull us into a completely false sense of security.
#1 by Suly on September 24, 2014 - 10:07 am
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1. If the air and water gets warmer, the pfinfus might die because they might not be able to adapt very well to the warmer climate, since the pfinfus need cold climates to live in. When the puffin fly and swim, they might get a bad disease.2. If the ice on land begins to melt, the ice will turn to water, and flow into the ocean, making the ocean rise. The extra water will start rising onto the land where the pfinfus lived, soon leaving no land left.3. If the ocean becomes more acidic, when the pfinfus swim, the acid could really damage the pfinfus. Also, when the pfinfus swim for food, if their food is damaged or diseased and the pfinfus eat them, they could also get diseased or maybe even die.4. The pfinfus food might not be able to adapt to the warmer climate, so the pfinfus food may get diseased or die out in that area. If they die out, the pfinfus in that area might also die out because the pfinfus wouldn’t have enough food to survive.