New Study Says Geoengineering the Climate Not a Solution to Climate ChangeBy Derrick Broze Scientists have known for decades that atmospheric aerosols can create a cooling effect on the climate by scattering incoming solar radiation back to space. In the last several years an increasing number of researchers have suggested that scientists and lawmakers should focus their efforts to combat climate change via artificially cooling the climate by increasing aerosol concentrations. This is what is known as solar radiation management (SRM), a specific type of geoengineering. According to a 2013 congressional report: The term geoengineering describes this array of technologies that aim, through large-scale and deliberate modifications of the Earths energy balance, to reduce temperatures and counteract anthropogenic climate change. Most of these technologies are at the conceptual and research stages, and their effectiveness at reducing global temperatures has yet to be proven. Moreover, very few studies have been published that document the cost, environmental effects, socio-political impacts, and legal implications of geoengineering. If geoengineering technologies were to be deployed, they are expected to have the potential to cause significant transboundary effects. In general, geoengineering technologies are categorized as either a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) method or a solar radiation management (SRM) (or albedo-modification)method. CDR methods address the warming effects of greenhouse gases by removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. CDR methods include ocean fertilization, and carbon capture and sequestration. SRM methods address climate change by increasing the reflectivity of the Earths atmosphere or surface. Aerosol injection and space-based reflectors are examples of SRM methods. SRM methods do not remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, but can be deployed faster with relatively immediate global cooling results compared to CDR methods. Now a new analysis released by the Finnish Meteorological Institute is raising more questions about the effectiveness of the controversial science of geoengineering. The FMI is the government agency responsible for reporting weather data and forecasts in Finland. The Institutes study, Modelling radiative and climate effects of aerosols: from Anthropogenic emissions to geoengineering, examined the potential for SRM to combat climate change. The study specifically looked at two types of SRM. The first involved marine aerosol concentrations use to increase clouds, while the second looked at increasing the amount of sulphur concentrated in the stratosphere. The researchers stated that their key objectives were to investigate the potential of aerosols to cool the climate at the global scale, and identify the possible limits in the effectiveness of the Solar Radiation Management techniques as well as the risks related to these techniques. The researchers found that the geoengineering techniques which were studied do in fact have the potential to cool the climate and slow down warming. However, the cooling effect has limitations, the team writes. The cooling effect attributable to aerosols would be rather small due to the geographical change in tropospheric aerosol emissions or change in energy production studied here when compared to the warming due to the increased greenhouse gas emissions, the paper states. In other words, the effort, money, and time it would take to invest and create geoengineering methods would likely do very little to actually limit the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers even state that based on their models if the world replaced coal with nuclear power for energy production it would lead to a temporal cooling effect, but after several years the warming effect from simultaneously increased GHG emission would exceed the cooling effect. Also, the cooling that does result from an increase in aerosols is often achieved at the cost of air quality which could lead to an increase in premature mortality. The researchers do believe these problems could be mitigated by reducing (aerosol) emissions from near to the coastal area but increasing it in the open sea. They suggest injecting aerosols into the stratosphere and tropics where solar radiation is on average at its largest. The FMI also looked at stratospheric sulphur geoengineering, the process of injecting sulphur into the stratosphere in an attempt to recreate a volcano eruption, which has been found to cool the climate. However, even this method is not without problems. The process requires an ever increasing amount of sulphur to be sprayed, which would result in the formation of larger and larger particles and the aerosol shield would scatter radiation back to space less reflectively. Ultimately, the researchers concluded: Overall, this work demonstrates that aerosols have the potential to cool the climate but slowing down the global warming would require large scale actions aimed at climate cooling. However, these actions include many uncertainties and risks which will need to be studied in detail. This requires simulations by global climate models and aerosol microphysics. If SRM methods are ever used, this would require a simultaneous reduction of GHG emissions and the methods cannot be viewed as a substitute for the mitigation policies. The new study goes hand and hand with research published by the Finnish Meteorological Institute in 2012 which also found that sulphur injection was not an effective strategy. That study specifically found that using commercial aircraft to spray aerosol into the stratosphere is not a viable strategy. Using commercial aircraft for sulphur injection would demand unrealistic scenarios to cause significant radiative forcing and thus cooling, Anton Laakso of the Finnish Meteorological Institute told Environmental Research Web at the time of the study. Interestingly enough, the idea that aerosols could be sprayed from planes is eerily reminiscent of various conspiracies involving the government using weather control technology to manipulate world events. In fact, Anti-Media recently reported on Professor Alan Robocks theory that the Central Intelligence Agency is using the weather as a weapon of war. Regardless of where you stand, geoengineering has been a controversial topic in recent years, both as a subject of conspiracy research and environmental concerns. One of the reasons the topic is so controversial is because of the possible risks. At least one previous study has found that geoengineering could cause the white haze and loss of blue skies that Long is observing. According to a report by the New Scientist, Ben Kravitz of the Carnegie Institution for Science has shown that releasing sulphate aerosols high in the atmosphere would scatter sunlight into the atmosphere. He says this could decrease the amount of sunlight that hits the ground by 20%, as well as make the sky appear more hazy. Ironically, the promotion of geoengineering might actually cause more harm than good, including an increase in droughts. In February 2015, an international committee of scientists released a report stating that geoengineering techniques are not a viable alternative to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat the effects of climate change. The committee report called for further research and understanding of various geoengineering techniques, including carbon dioxide removal schemes and solar-radiation management before implementation. The scientists found that SRM techniques are likely to present serious known and possible unknown environmental, social, and political risks, including the possibility of being deployed unilaterally. The report was sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. intelligence community, NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Department of Energy. According to a 2013 study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, if geoengineering programs were started and then suddenly halted, the planet could see an immediate rise in temperatures, particularly over land. The study, titled, The Impact of Abrupt Suspension of Solar Radiation Management, seems to indicate that once geoengineering begins, the programs cannot be suspended without causing the very problem the engineering was intended to solve. What are your thoughts? Do you think the U.S. government should study geoengineering? Are the programs already active? Should humanity pursue the technology? Derrick Broze is an investigative journalist and liberty activist. He is the Lead Investigative Reporter for selfnewsPost.com and the founder of the TheConsciousResistance.com. Follow him on Twitter. Derrick is available for interviews. This article may be freely reposted in part or in full with author attribution and source link. So much spin in this article. Dont have time to deal with it all. For starters, this article completely over looks the fact that this harmful criminal experiment has been going non stop without peoples informed consent on for over twenty years. People have become ill. Large tracts of the earth have been contaminated with aluminum and who knows what else. But as well as polluting the air water and soil, it also burns real good. Great fuel for the unprecedented fires. Also missing was any mention of the worlds corporate/ military use of this technology along with HAARP and atmospheric heaters to create nice quiet droughts or deluging rainstorms.. where ever they want one. Why was the military completely exempted from the Kyoto accord in 1998? Kind of puts paid to the validity of so called Climate Change science. Nice little plug for NuClear. Another military weapon and deadly technology. You dont even need to be attacked just shut off the electric power or let the stuff leak from aging reactors or run on the ground like whats happening at Hanford. Great way to reduce the population. All the terrorists responsible for these crimes need to be put some rat hole like Guantanamo Bay. Not to mention the fact that it is unconstitutional to spray anything over the UsurpedStates. Ah yes, I remember reading about geo-engineering in the Constitution and how un-constitutional it all is Not. It is illegal to use humans for experiments and spraying substances from the sky without the peoples consent has been deemed unconstitutional. It isnt that difficult to understand. Like this government respects the constitution BWAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!! Thats a good one! This government hasnt cared about the constitution since its unelected bureaucrats were tested on it in high school. The US government decided long ago that it needs the constitution like a fish needs a bicycle Complete self=delusional insanity. The arrogance and hubris of those who believe they can engineer and change climates is breath-taking. Anyone with any knowledge and an ongoing thought process knows this is not possible. There are a helluva lot more things to climate than CO2, and I remain to be convinced CO2 has anything to do with anything except providing the molecule plants need to survive. Aerosols damaging the atmosphere is a crazed bureaucrats idea for controlling something, anything. Whatever happened to the feared hole in the Ozone. This was going to wreak havoc on the world and millions would die. Now, its no problem. And I completely agree with mooney7s remarks below. Awww the smell of barium in the morning nothing says wake up any better. The article in written in such a way as to frame the discussion in the context of the theoretical application of geoengineering. 