Bits of Geoengineering

Threefold increase of dust led to -40 ppm CO2 Antarctic iron fertilisation during Pleistocene

An international team of researchers today in Nature explain the importance of dust storms for climate variability, not just for the radiative balance, but also for the Earth’s carbon cycle. For geoengineering minds: iron fertilisation at least seems to have … Continue reading →

Crop geoengineering #3: doubling root depth would store 230 Gt carbon in agricultural soils – minus 118 ppm CO2

Breeding crops with deeper (and larger) root systems could help to lower atmospheric CO2 levels, while also making the crops better drought-resistant, Douglas Kell, a Professor of Bioanalytical Science at the University of Manchester says.

Iron fertilisation geoengineering affects deep sea ecology too

Ocean iron fertilisation, one of the most discussed CDR geoengineering proposals, deliberately tries to stimulate biological activity in the upper ocean. New research shows this in turn affects ecology at the ocean floor too. Let’s just hope sea cucumbers don’t … Continue reading →

Antarctic krill promotes CO2 uptake by plankton through iron fertilisation

Iron is very rare in the upper layers of the world´s oceans, where photosynthesis is possible and therefore biological activity and concentration of living biomass is highest, making the mineral a growth-limiting nutrient in 40 percent of the world’s oceans, … Continue reading →

IPCC AR5 looks into geoengineering science

Next week, Monday till Wednesday, climate experts from IPCC WGI, II & III will get together in Lima to discuss a possible inclusion of geoengineering measures in climate policy. Although intended for participants only, the programme, including abstracts of keynote … Continue reading →

Does cyclone modification geoengineering make sense?

Is what a group of engineering policy researchers and atmospheric scientists from Carnegie Mellon and MIT asked themselves. Considering increasing hurricane damage around the Gulf of Mexico – and technological options – they get to a ‘maybe’.