Atmosphere of Hope reviewed- Holly J. Buck
Is staying below a 2C rise in temperature is a realistic or fantastic target? There’s been talk about this lately, in Nature and on this forum. Beneath this question lies another question: Is there hope?
What of 2C? – Aaron Kressig
Climate scientists have begun to calculate how we are doing on the 2C goal, and the math is a little frightening. Not only do we have little wiggle room in terms of how much carbon we can emit to have any certainty of staying under this limit, but it will be global actions in the next two decades that determine our fate.
Media coverage of NAS “Climate Intervention” reports
A lot of press coverage of the reports and the event marking their release. We did a nice thing and rounded up the major pieces.
Forum – “Fighting Climate Change with Geoengineering” responses
The December 12 issue of Newsweek magazine includes the cover story “Planet Reboot: Fighting Climate Change With Geoengineering” The article included the following passage: The world’s climate scientists have begun to turn their attention to generating workable geoengineering projects that can either bypass governmental red tape or reverse the change [to the world’s climate…
Imperative to get the carbon removal dialogue up to speed with the science – Guest Post – Noah Deich, UC Berkeley
On November 4th, Michael Ashcroft, of the Carbon Trust, and I gave a presentation on the topic of technologies for removing carbon from the atmosphere and their implications for industry and government, at the USEA, in Washington, D.C. Negative emissions, or Carbon Dioxide Removal (“CDR”) activities have recently gained increased press attention in the mass media…
New study assesses potential challenges to BECCS deployment – Wil Burns
Recent studies make it increasingly clear that the globe is poised to blow past the 2°C “guardrail” that climate scientists and Parties to the UNFCCC have identified as critical to avoid dangerous climatic impacts, with current projections of temperature increases of 3-4°C or more by the end of the century. Such sobering scenarios have intensified…
Forum – Where does the climate geoengineering conversation go from here?
On Monday, The New York Times ran a story titled “Climate Tools Seek to Bend Nature’s Path.” From the article- “Once considered the stuff of wild-eyed fantasies, such ideas for countering climate change — known as geoengineering solutions, because they intentionally manipulate nature — are now being discussed seriously by scientists. … That does not…
‘Uncertainties’ is an understatement, when it comes to BECCS – Guest Post – Rachel Smolker, Biofuelwatch
In 2012, Biofuelwatch published a report titled “Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage: Climate savior or dangerous hype?” We had long been working to reveal and oppose large scale industrial and commercial scale bioenergy in various forms ranging from ethanol refineries to soy and palm oil biodiesel to coal plants converting over to burn wood….
Is CDR ‘geoengineering’? Guest Post- Noah Deich, MBA candidate, UC Berkeley
First of all, why even ask this question? In a recent piece on climate change policy, Ezra Klein captured the zeitgeist on geoengineering with the heading: “geoengineering is nuts.” For US politicians/regulators, even speaking of geoengineering presents large risks, and leaves one open to rebukes from liberals and conservatives alike. This negative perception of geoengineering likely…
Wil Burns – Bioenergy CCS and Potential Tradeoffs with Food Production
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in its Fifth Assessment Report’s Working Group III contribution, “[b]ioenergy coupled CCS (BECCS) has attracted particular attention since AR4 because it offers the prospect of energy supply with negative emissions.” However, as the IPCC report also cautions, BECCS poses serious challenges, among them, the potential threat to food supplies…