Bits of Geoengineering
What’s up with geoengineering? Most people don’t know.
Geoengineering can be compared to taking a pill for being overweight. Instead of trying to tackle the root of the problem, it tries to cure the symptoms. But like medicine for reducing obesity we will probably need it in the … Continue reading
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.
Possible CCS boost: scientists say they have developed key ingredient for cheaper CO2 filters
Chemists of Lehigh University have engineered new porous materials to adsorb [adhesion of gas to surface] both CO2 and methane from flue gas.
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’.
Soil invertebrates could withstand biochar geoengineering
But new study advises wetting of either the soil (after mixing) or the char (just before) with large-scale biochar application, in order to keep Eisenia fetida happy.