Welcome to Geo-Engineering! – Breathtaking Leap in Climate Science
Hemantha Abeywardena writes from London…
A leaked document, obtained by The Guardian newspaper in London, explicitly shows that the climate scientists of the IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - had been in a state of hibernation too - a pretty constructive one, while staying a step ahead of squirrels and rabbits; they have been brainstorming while in the semi-sleepy state – and inside steel-equivalent of burrows.
We say that they have been in hibernation, because they did not make any noise recently about the climate change – or lack of it. We observe that they have been brainstorming, because the document discloses some mind-boggling proposals which they are going to share among themselves, next week, in Peru.
There are quite a few ideas, according to The Guardian, that the climate scientists hope to adopt to tackle the impending ‘disaster’. For me, the most eye-catching one is the proposal to erect huge mirrors in space, to reflect the sunlight back into where it comes from.
The IPCC cannot claim to be the sole collective brain behind the idea; it has been in circulation among the climate scientists for a while. We have to wait and see whether the proposal will be elevated to feasible state from aspiring state, in the next few days. If not, the IPCC may come up with a miniature version of mirror concept; perhaps, spraying reflective stuff on clouds – to create another disaster when the clouds turn into water droplets by polluting a whole region.
“How on earth are they going to do that?” you may wonder. Well, first of all, it is not going to be on the earth; secondly, the concept is still in the embryonic stage – a sort of comical foetus. It is very difficult to suppress the curiosity about the mechanism that may be used to suspend the mirrors in space, though.
Since the scientists haven’t specified the type of mirror they are going to install in space, we are free to exercise our right to speculate. It is highly likely to be a concave one – the kind of mirror which is capable of magnifying your face by tenfold, if you dare look into one of them. However, there is a flip side to it.
If the mirror is perfectly spherical, an optical inconvenience can arise – in addition to the existing headaches that the climate scientists face with right now – as the rays may quarrel in finding a place to unite, exactly like many layers do in the global warming movement. The issue, known among physicists as spherical aberration, in fact, can be addressed to a reasonable extent. However, the larger the mirror, the more cumbersome the process becomes – and then the cost.
The project, if successful, has all the ingredients for a universal moral hazard too: if the installed mirrors can reflect the light, the power of the reflected converging beam will be immensely powerful; so the scenario of an extra-terrestrial or even an angel crossing the dangerous path cannot be completely ruled out; if it happens, it is highly unlikely that earthlings can get away with the crime while ducking the consequences.
The type of mirror and how it can be suspended in space, are not the only problems associated with this novel idea. We have no certainty about the way light travels in space either.
When we were small, teachers used to say us that it travels in straight lines and proved their point by lifting the index finger between a wall and a light bulb to produce a menacing shadow; since the gesture had been in use for many secondary purposes too, we meekly accepted the theory – and word for word.
In the secondary school, however, a more advanced theory was taught while eclipsing the first one: “light travels as waves,” we were told. “Leave the door of a dark room ajar, and the slight illumination inside the room can only be accounted for by wave theory,” said my physics teacher to prove her point. Then, there came the Quantum Theory, postulated by great Einstein: light travels as photons or quanta – lumps of energy.
So, if light travels in straight lines or as waves, the suspended mirrors – if we ever get that far – may do a pretty incomplete job in terms of the number of rays turned back. If they travel as quanta, however, we can only pray that mirrors will be able catch at least some of them, before they are heading towards the Earth. So, in that context, if someone says that climate scientists have a mountain to climb, it is a gross under-estimate; in fact, they have a stratosphere to climb, before breathing a sigh of relief in thin air!
Against this backdrop, all eyes will be on the IPCC, a group of 60 scientists, which is going to meet up in Peru. The movement suffered quite a few setbacks during the past two years: first of all, a leading climate scientist in the UK was caught red-handed while inflating the global temperatures in the past to show that the temperatures are on the rise – when it was not true; then, Al Gore, the carbon-messiah, was forced to deal with the second inconvenient truth on marital front – if the first one was the rising global temperature; then, there were numerous allegations against the top officials o the IPCC for paving the way for conflicts of interest.
In this context, there is a huge responsibility hanging over Mr Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the IPCC. Mr Pachauri, an Indian civil engineer by profession, has come in for widespread criticism when he authorised flawed claim that Himalayan Glaciers would melt by 2035, something which the IPCC retracted later to keep him in the job.
Mr Pachauri, perhaps, can come up with a brilliant idea to install giant mirrors in space by using his structural engineering skills. Such a feat would silence his critics - who question his suitability to lead a climate body while being a civil engineer. If successful, the IPCC can triggers off paroxysms of excitement among its 60-member delegation to beat off the growing number of sceptics.
Otherwise, the movement will experience an uphill struggle to grab funds for more research - and to regain what is left of its credibility. People are becoming more and more cynical about the claims of the global warming; by stark contrast, the hypothesis of mini-ice age is gaining momentum while spreading out a very cool breeze throughout the West.
- Asian Tribune -
