Andy Revkin has a new post up over at the NYT, talking about "wishful thinking" and "real action" on climate, and it's raised some interesting points about geoengineering.
The post is a response to Joe Romm's attack on remarks Andy is reported to have made at a recent talk, where he called the idea of global diplomatic solutions to climate change wishful thinking. Joe accuses Andy of mistaking US climate change politics (by far the most backward of any major nation) with global realities. Andy responds:
"On the overarching question of “solving” the climate problem, I’m sure Joe would agree that global warming is inevitably going to be, at best, managed — not “fixed” — given the trajectories for emissions in a world inexorably headed toward roughly nine billion people seeking energy-enabled lives and with substantial warming already in the pipeline, according to a heap of research."As I mentioned in my talk, it’s not hard to find signals that diplomatic and legislative efforts are destined to be inadequate and new approaches are needed. When Friends of the Earth (U.K.) says that some geoengineering options need to be explored (cloud management and direct air capture of carbon dioxide) you know they’re not counting on emissions pledges."
