14 DAY TRIAL // Geoengineering is a discipline of science that has been getting a lot of attention lately. This has happened because the scientific community finally began to take notice of the fact that politicians and law makers have no interest in promoting mitigating measures for global warming. They would rather say that greenhouse gases are not a problem and hide their head in the ground. As a result, scientists are now forced to consider methods of accounting for these effects that were derided only years ago, Nature News reports.
Last week, in California, experts met to discuss possible options regarding geoengineering and to review some of the projects that have been proposed thus far. Another important topic was elaborating some guidelines to govern the field, whose goal would have been to ensure that the measures considered would not do more harm than good. However, this objective was not achieved, due to the fact that this type of engineering, which refers to modifying the entire planet, is very tricky to perform in just the right amount, so as to obtain the correct, desired results.
But all attendants left with a warning. Princeton University climate researcher Robert Socolow, a renowned expert in the field, said that those involved in this line of work should take great caution in validating their results several times over, before proposing any large-scale projects of modifying the planet. “Be very careful,” he told the meeting, adding that, in addition to the unintended consequences, there are also legal, moral and ethical obligations that need to be considered when talking about geoengineering. Socolow also revealed a number of scenarios that he considered to be interesting.
“We're scared, and nothing brings people together like fear,” said after the meeting scientist Jane Long, who is the associate director for energy and environment at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in California. “It's a moral imperative to search for solutions,” she adds. The recent meeting, which came up short of its stated objective, took place at the same location where, some 35 years ago, experts working in the then-emerging field of genetic engineering met to establish the guidelines they are largely using to conduct their work by to this day.