I read with great interest this recent article in the New York Times: The Unintended Consequences of Changing Nature’s Balance.
It's a very instructive example of the unequal and unexpected consequences that can happen when we attempt to "manage" the balance of nature. Here's a snippet from the article:
In 1985, Australian scientists kicked off an ambitious plan: to kill off non-native cats that had been prowling the island’s slopes since the early 19th century. The program began out of apparent necessity — the cats were preying on native burrowing birds. Twenty-four years later, a team of scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division and the University of Tasmania reports that the cat removal unexpectedly wreaked havoc on the island ecosystem.
With the cats gone, the island’s rabbits (also non-native) began to breed out of control, ravaging native plants and sending ripple effects throughout the ecosystem. The findings were published in the Journal of Applied Ecology online in January.
Ok. So this is bad. A well intentioned, but completely FUBAR effort. Still, this problem is confined to Macquarie Island (where?) and the players seem to have a handle on the mistakes and an understanding of the solution. Problem solved, lesson learned, paper published.
Now, fast forward to today and the on-going efforts to "geoengineer" (that's right, geoengineer) climate change solutions. These are technologies that are being developed to offset the effect of CO2 forcing and mitigate global warming -- think of them as the atmospheric equivalent of removing the cats from Macquarie Island.
Frightened yet?
Following is a list of technologies currently under consideration and/or development (from Wired Magazine, Scientists Rank Global Cooling Hacks):
- Stratospheric aerosols Inject enough sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to reflect the small percentage of sunlight necessary to offset increased warming caused by carbon dioxide. This scheme is akin to the cooling induced by large volcanic explosions.
- Albedo increase: cloud, mechanical Manufacture sea salt spray to change the way clouds form over the ocean to increase their reflectivity.
- Albedo increase: desert Cover the earth's non-sandy deserts with a material composed of a white polyethylene top and an aluminum bottom. That would increase the albedo of those surfaces, cooling the earth.
- Air capture and storage Use chemical processes to pull carbon dioxide out of the air and sequester it in geological reservoirs.
- Ocean phosphorous addition Add phosphorous intentionally to the oceans, fertilizing the water, and creating more carbon-munching life there. Eventually, those creatures or the creatures that eat them die and drift into the deep ocean, taking that carbon with them.
- Albedo increase: grassland Breed or genetically engineer shinier plants to increase the reflectivity of the world's savannahs and shrublands.
- Bio-char production Create charcoal from biomass, effectively sequestering the carbon in the plant matter, and bury it.
- Carbonate addition to oceans Add carbonate to the oceans, increasing their carbon intake and fighting ocean acidification.
- Albedo increase: cropland Breed or genetically engineer shinier crops to increase the reflectivity of the world's farmed land.
- Ocean nitrogen fertilization Add nitrogen intentionally to the oceans, fertilizing the water, and creating more carbon-munching life there. Eventually, those creatures or the creatures that eat them die and drift into the deep ocean, taking that carbon with them.
- Iron fertilization Add iron intentionally to the oceans, fertilizing the water, and creating more carbon-munching life there. Eventually, those creatures or the creatures that eat them die and drift into the deep ocean, taking that carbon with them.
- Afforestation/reforestation Plant massive amounts of trees across the Earth and count on them to sequester more carbon dioxide naturally.
- Albedo increase: human settlement Make the areas where humans live considerably more reflective by, say, painting roofs white.
- Enhance upwelling Bring nutrient-rich water up from the deeps to foster carbon-using life at the surface of the ocean.
- Albedo increase: cloud, biological Add dimethyl sulfide to a patch of ocean to create more microorganisms that act as formation sites for water droplets and eventually lead to clouds.
- Enhance downwelling Cool down huge amounts of water with large pumps to form and thicken sea ice that would in turn cool the sea water. That water would descend to the depths, taking a bit of extra carbon with it.
- Albedo increase: urban areas Make cities considerably more reflective by, say, painting roofs white.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Unless, of course, you're the Macquarie Island equivalent of a rabbit.




