Citizen Power

Blankets over Greenland glaciers — has it come to this? There is more talk now of geoengineering than ever before. It seems to the public that we have jumped from being introduced to the concept of global warming to suddenly finding out it’s too late to save our environment by conventional means. (Conservation and renewable energy) So, the more desperate measures are already coming out, including wrapping glaciers in reflective blankets. There is no specific reason to be against this idea but I think if we are going to do geoengineering there should be some public input, some public debate, and maybe more realism. There is very little likelihood that this will work and we don’t know that it’s “too late”.

There are currently very serious scientific debates on whether or not we can keep carbon to 450ppm, keep warming to 4 degrees C and adapt (adaptation is another topic) — and there is still discussion of getting our carbon back down to 350ppm with technology being discussed or developed. There is no reason to “give up” before we have even seriously attempted other measures, yet discussion about “Geoengineering” has never been so hot. Are scientists really as worried as certain podcasters I know? That’s not exactly reassuring.

Believe it or not, covering portions of glaciers with reflective blankets has already been attempted. You can see the Guardian video here.

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