Outline of geoengineering

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to geoengineering.

Geoengineering is the deliberate large-scale engineering and manipulation of the planetary environment to combat or counteract anthropogenic changes in atmospheric chemistry. This field is still in its theoretical stage, although first trials were already conducted (see Iron fertilization) or scheduled but delayed as a result of controversy surrounding the research (see SPICE Project).

Geoengineering defined

Geoengineering can be described as all of the following:

  • An academic discipline –
  • Branch of engineering –

Branches of geoengineering

  • Arctic geoengineering
  • Bio-geoengineering

Proposed strategies

  • List of proposed geoengineering projects

Carbon dioxide removal

  • Carbon dioxide removal – refers to a number of technologies which reduce the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
    • Bio-energy with carbon capture and storage –
    • Biochar –
    • Ocean nourishment –
    • Enhanced weathering –
  • Greenhouse gas remediation –
  • Carbon sequestration –
  • Iron fertilisation –

Solar radiation management

  • Solar radiation management – technologies to reflect sunlight and thus reduce global warming.
    • Stratospheric sulfur aerosols (geoengineering) –
    • Space sunshade –
    • Cloud reflectivity enhancement –
    • SPICE Project (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering) –

Geoengineering organizations

Geoengineering publications

  • Collection of publications about Geoengineering and Climate Change (1964 - today, app. 900 documents), Centre for International Governance Innovation 'CIGI'
  • Jeff Goodell: How to Cool the Planet. Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth's Climate. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston MA 2010, ISBN 978-0-618-99061-0.
  • Eli Kintisch: Hack the Planet: Science's Best Hope - or Worst Nightmare - for Averting Climate Catastrophe. Wiley, 2010. ISBN 0-470-52426-X.
  • Brian Launder und J. Michael T. Thompson (Hrsg.): Geo-engineering climate change. Environmental necessity or Pandora's box?. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge 2010. ISBN 978-0-521-19803-5

Persons influential in geoengineering

Geoengineers

  • Ken Caldeira – an atmospheric scientist who works at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology.
  • Paul J. Crutzen –
  • John D. Hamaker –
  • David Keith (scientist) –
  • Klaus Lackner –
  • Christopher McKay (planetary scientist) –
  • M. Granger Morgan –
  • Nathan Myhrvold –
  • Steve Rayner –
  • Alan Robock –
  • Stephen Salter –
  • Stephen Schneider –
  • Lowell Wood –

See also

  • Climate change mitigation
  • Carbon sink
  • Convention on Biological Diversity
  • Five Ways to Save the World
  • Global warming
  • List of proposed geoengineering schemes
  • Terraforming
  • Virgin Earth Challenge
  • Weather control

Sources

Further reading