According to Slate and Mother Jones, the CIA, NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) are set to co-finance a study to be carried out by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the United States, looking into the possibilities offered by bioengineering to modify the climate on a global scale. The study will also assess the potential environmental, social, economic and even national security consequences of such interventions.
At the start of his second term, President Obama announced that climate change would be one of his main priorities. But the targets set — a 17% cut in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and 80% by 2050 — will likely not be enough to counter global warming. This is why researchers are looking into bioengineering techniques such as large-scale carbon dioxide sequestration or increasing the planet’s albedo.
The study aims to assess the feasibility, effectiveness and impacts of a selection of techniques. The fact that some of these technologies are inexpensive and relatively simple to deploy raises an additional security concern, as certain countries or even wealthy individuals could unilaterally decide to implement them without regard for the consequences.
The study, which has a budget of $630,000 and is expected to run for 21 months, will focus on the following two types of technology:
. solar radiation management (SRM), such as releasing sulphur particles into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight (the idea being to mimic the effect of volcanic eruptions)
. carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and carbon capture and storage (CCS), for example by fertilising the oceans with iron sulphate.
Some climate manipulation experiments have already taken place. China is said to regularly use a technology for triggering rainfall over specific areas, with mixed success: the technique known as cloud seeding.
However, the climate and the oceans follow such complex dynamics that one has to wonder whether it will ever be possible to assess all the potential consequences of such a large-scale manipulation of the climate. Drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions seems like a far simpler — and safer — solution…
