Thursday, August 6, 2009: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
Pecos, Albuquerque Convention Center
SYMP 21 - The Environmental Effects of Geoengineering
Geoengineering – deliberately modifying the Earth’s environment to reverse climate change – is increasingly being proposed as a bridge to a carbon-neutral future. In June of 2008 the national science academies of the G8+5 nations (Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and the United States) released a joint statement that included a specific call for research on the potential of geoengineering technologies to help stabilize the Earth’s climate (http://www.nationalacademies.org/includes/climatechangestatement.pdf). The possibility that geoengineering will be applied to combat global warming raises a host of environmental questions. Will such approaches actually work? Who will control the thermostat for the Earth? What other environmental consequences might arise and where would the effects be the greatest? We propose to hold a symposium that examines these and other issues, linking closely to the overall theme of the 2009 Annual Meeting: Ecological Knowledge and a Global Sustainable Society.
Organizer:Robert B. Jackson, Duke University
Co-organizer:Clifford Duke, Ecological Society of America
Moderator:Robert B. Jackson, Duke University
Endorsement:ESA Science Programs Office
1:30 PMThe promise and peril of geoengineering
Robert B. Jackson, Duke University
2:00 PMImpact of geoengineered aerosols on the troposphere and stratosphere
Simone Tilmes, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Rolando R. Garcia, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Doug E. Kinnison, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Andrew Gettelman, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Philip J. Rasch, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA, Ross J. Salawitch, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA, Rolf Mueller, Forschungszentrum Juelich, Juelich, Germany
2:30 PMGeoengineering: Conservation biology at global scale, or the end of nature?
David Keith, University of Calgary
3:00 PMBreak
3:15 PMImpact of geoengineering schemes on the global hydrological cycle
Govindasamy Bala, Indian Institute of Science, Phillip Duffy, Climate Central, Inc., Karl Taylor, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
3:45 PMOcean iron fertilization: Not good for oceans
Charles B. Miller, Oregon State University
4:15 PMDiscussion

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See more of The 94th ESA Annual Meeting (August 2 -- 7, 2009)