The Unsexy Solution to Climate Change: “Intermediates”

Like something from a Lost episode, the “Lohafex Project” recently came to a crashing halt. What is this you ask? Scientists have been conducting experiments off the coast of Africa involving dumping iron filings into the ocean to see if additional carbon dioxide would be absorbed from the air. Results: negligible.

What next? Well, instead of getting bogged down in political realism or futuristic geo-engineering projects, a new movement may be gaining traction, a movement without the glamour and urgency of other solutions: “intermediates.” These solutions may not be in our best interest in the long-term, nor feasible in the short-term, but in the intermediary time period they may be just what we need. And as the saying goes, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

The two intermediates that come to mind are nuclear power and carbon capture sequestration (CCS).

The first one has been re-introduced to me through news reports of countries expanding or keeping their nuclear power as well as my current class in Energy Technology taught by Professor F.H. Cocks, a former consultant to Los Alamos National Laboratories.

Carbon capture sequestration has come to my attention partly through similar news reports about countries expanding their research efforts in the area but primarily through my assistantship at the Climate Change Policy Partnership where CCS is being researched.

Both “solutions” are quite interesting since they challenge the way we think. There clearly is no one solution to climate change, as much as geo-engineering experiments would like to have it, nor does there appear to be the geopolitical impetus to achieve CO2 reductions across the board in the near term. However, maybe there is something to be said for intermediate solutions. You tell me.

P.S. As I was about to publish this I noticed that Alan Hastings of UC-Davis is coming to speak on the following, relevant topic: “The essential role of time and space in ecological understanding.” I’ve included the abstract of his talk below as well as the event info.

Abstract:
“Much of ecological thinking, and especially ecological theory, has focused on long term, or asymptotic, outcomes. Yet, in order to develop an ecological understanding of the impact of global change it will be necessary to focus on a variety of time scales. I will develop ways that time (and necessarily space) scales enter into ecological understanding, and how ecological dynamics plays out over intermediate time and space scales. I will illustrate the concepts with examples drawn from variety of ecological systems ranging from diseases to marine systems including coral reefs and many others.  I will illustrate how these concepts can enter into management approaches.”

Meeting info:
Thursday, April 02       
FRENCH SCIENCE Rm. 2237
4:30 – 5:45pm