Geo-Engineering: the Cat Shortly Among the Pigeons

Here’s an entertaining prospect.  Geo-engineering, a topic that surfaces from time to time – and unfailingly causes apoplexy – may be coming to a Trump administration near you.  So: soon it may be getting mainstream airtime.  Let the outrage commence!  And the sulphates, and the algae, the CO2 pumps, the cloud-seeding, marine-cloud brightening, solar sunshades etc etc. 

At the best of times, Greenies are prone to (a) crazy & illogical argumentation;  (b) hyperventilation & tears.  But in my experience geo-engineering seems to bring out the worst in them, they spontaneously detonate.  Advocates of this baleful practice are evidently several degrees worse than mere CAGW-deniers.

To the extent Greenies muster arguments at all on the subject, these fall into four categories (I confess I haven’t yet trawled the latest CiF tsunami for any new ones):

• political – it’s all Jolly Undemocratic
• unintended consequences – there will be Lots
• continued hydrocarbon burning – under cover of the geo-programme
• maintenance of the geo-programme – it can’t be relied upon, and then what?

If reasoning had anything to do with it – and of course it doesn’t – these arguments can be countered with ease, mostly one must stop laughing for just a minute and point out the exact same arguments apply equally to their own favoured “solutions”.  Examples from the real world can be given aplenty.

The fourth ‘argument’ always amuses me.  Woe upon us, what would happen if we relied on (e.g.) pumping reflective particles into the sky to keep the world from warming up – And Then There Was A War?!   And no-one would be maintaining the particles!   

Well.  In a world where everyone also relies on, oh, what shall we mention?  – electricity grids / the internet / health services / clean water systems / complex food supply chains / telephone networks / satellite communications & GPS / credit cards – what’s one new techno-dependency between friends?  A new one comes along every generation.  FFS.

Anyhow I am looking forward to the show.  Better they are wetting themselves over this than several other more proximate causes that might bring them out onto the streets.

ND