Can humans change the weather?
This question is crazy right? The answer should be an
absolute no. We have no power against Mother Nature. The sure energy it takes
to create a severe thunderstorm, tornado, hurricane or any other massive storm
system is equivalent to the energy capacity of the entire world’s weapon arsenal. So the answer
would in fact be no, they cannot; at least for now.
What about the regional/global climate?
With furthering evidence that humans are in fact warming the
Earth due to the emissions of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, there is
much more certainty in the anthropocentric impact in the climate change equation.
While not being completely adamant that that is the case, an overwhelming
amount of time and research has gone into proving that hypothesis, especially over the past 20
years regarding the overall scope of this shift in the climate and also the
likelihood that it is not a “natural fluctuation”, which is what a lot of
climate change skeptics like to point to.
So if climate change exists, and it is because of humans,
what can we do as humans to stop it?
This is the main question that plagues not only scientists
who study the weather and its effects, but policy makers, economists, and even
everyday citizens. The effort to make things more ‘green’ with the hopes of
improving the overall deteriorating environment has been well noted. Though
most of it is being done completely in vain because of the counter intuitive
measures of developing countries like China and India and a refusal of what is
being considered as drastic emission cuts by the United States. Why this is happening is a whole other topic.
The answer to the question becomes completely simple when you alleviate the
political and economic ramifications of these potential decisions. Stop using fossil
fuels, use cleaner bio-fuels, finance implementation of green energy even in
developing countries, adapt to the new climate patterns effectively and the
mitigate/reverse the effects of what is already being done through
geo-engineering.
This article is highlighting the last of those options. What
is geo-engineering?
Geo-engineering is defined as “the deliberate
and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climatic system with the aim of
reducing global warming”. Through the eyes of policy makers, it is known as a
potential third/alternative option when dealing with global warming with
mitigation and adaption being the first two. There are several kinds of
geo-engineering, though the main two studied methods are solar radiation
management and greenhouse gas remediation. Below is a brief description of all
three.
Solar Radiation Management - The goal
for these methods is to produce a higher overall albedo to block direct
radiation from the sun. Thus, this method is supposed to directly cool the
Earth. The science behind this method is sound, as proven by any kind of
volcanic eruption, or a cloudy day in general. The less sunlight that gets
through to the ground and the more that gets reflected back out of the
atmosphere, the cooler the ground temperature is. There are several different
subsections of this method, including cloud seeding (spraying silver iodide or
any other chemical which can act as a cloud condensation nuclei), ocean sulfur
cycle enhancement (enhancing the already natural sulfuric cycle in the Southern
Ocean to increase albedo), and the production of stratospheric aerosols. This
does not include any space or terrestrial methods to increase the albedo.
Carbon Sequestration-This is another
name for Greenhouse Gas Remediation. This method is meant to directly remove
Carbon Dioxide, Methane and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere using
direct and indirect methods. This includes carbon capture and storage, air
storage, and bio energy with carbon capture. Iron Fertilization is a method most
widely known and used in the field to help capture and effectively use excess
carbon dioxide. In basic terms, it is the introduction of iron in the ocean to
produce a phytoplankton plume and produces mass photosynthetic activity.
The issues that plagues this method of
combating climate change are:
1.
How are these measures going to carried
out?
2.
Who will have control of this potential “weather
changing technology”?
3.
When are we going to start implementing/field
testing this technology?
4.
Does it really work?
So humans cannot control the weather, or can they? This can
still be debated (see Rapid City flood); the fact is though, is we are developing technology now that
can help combat the changes that climate change will bring.
I can try to answer the above hypothetical questions in
another article, this is more meant to be an overview of a relatively unknown
topic to the outside world. Want more info? Let me know!
-James
