Geoengineering Responses to Climate Change

How could geoengineering technology help to limit the impact of global warming? This collection of papers from Springer's Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology examines techniques varying from carbon sequestration to solar radiation management.

Failure by the international community to make substantive progress in reducing CO2 emissions, coupled with recent evidence of accelerating climate change, has brought increasing urgency to the search for additional remediation approaches. This book presents a selection of state-of-the-art geoengineering methods for deliberately reducing the effects of anthropogenic climate change, either by actively removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere or by decreasing the amount of sunlight absorbed at the Earth's surface. These methods contrast with more conventional mitigation approaches which focus on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. Geoengineering technologies could become a key tool to be used in conjunction with emissions reduction to limit the magnitude of climate change. Featuring authoritative, peer-reviewed entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, this book presents a wide range of climate change remediation technologies.

Examines the potential of geoengineering technologies to contribute to the goal of restricting global warming to within 2°C of preindustrial levels Discusses carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SDR) Places the technologies discussed in their proper social, political, and ethical contexts Provides valuable insights for audiences ranging from researchers and industry experts to policy makers and university-level students

Autorentext
Tim Lenton is Professor of Earth System Science at the University of East Anglia. His research focuses on understanding the behaviour of the Earth as a whole system, especially through the development and use of Earth system models. He is particularly interested in how life has reshaped the planet in the past, through a series of revolutions in Earth history, and what lessons we can draw from this as we proceed to reshape the planet now. His recent work identifying the tipping elements in the climate system won the Times Higher Education Award for Research Project of the Year 2008. Tim was also awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2004, a European Geosciences Union Outstanding Young Scientist Award 2006, the British Association Charles Lyell Award Lecture 2006, and the Geological Society of London William Smith Fund 2008. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London (2001) and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London (2009).

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Sunshades for Solar Radiation Management.- 3. Stratospheric Aerosols for Solar Radiation Management.- 4. Solar Radiation Management, Cloud Albedo Enhancement.- 5. Ocean Fertilization for Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere.- 6. Biochar, Tool for Climate Change Mitigation and Soil Management.- 7. Carbon Dioxide Sequestration, Weathering Approaches to.- 8. Geoengineering Policy and Governance Issues.- Index.