Geoengineering and the global climate crisis



Global heating continues unabated. While decarbonizing our energy sources is certainly important, it is too late to prevent global disaster. Coastal flooding, desertification, wildfires will continue to increase, driving vulnerable populations to migrate and igniting resource wars for fresh water and arable land. It’s already driving migration and violence in the Middle East and Central America.

We must find a way to decarbonize the atmosphere on a global scale to prevent an existential threat to humanity. Currently, the most promising path to global carbon capture is geoengineering the worlds oceans. 

 

“There will be tradeoffs involved in carrying out any method of carbon removal on a global scale. Ocean alkalinity enhancement would require major new mining efforts. Ocean iron fertilization could affect the fishing industry and fish stocks in unpredictable ways. We have been unintentionally geoengineering our atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, and as unpalatable as it may be, we may need to further manipulate the ocean to help fix the problem. The last time atmospheric carbon dioxide was at the current concentration—nearly 3 million years ago—sea level was more than 20 feet above the current level, meaning unless we do something now, we can expect such a rise to happen again.”

Oceanographer Dr. Benjamin Twining thoughtfully discusses the opportunities and challenges of ocean carbon capture in the linked Boston Globe column. Are there risks? Sure. But the alternative is certain disaster. 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/18/opinion/ocean-iron-fertilization-carbon-removal/

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