Technological Solutions

I really enjoyed Troy's second visit to the class because he has a way of explaining complicated environmental science topics so they are very easy to apply and understand. One aspect of his presentation that I found particularly helpful was his explanation of geoengineering. He essentially stated that it is any method that would counteract or reduce the effects of global warming. There are essentially two different categories. The first is solar radiation management that has many different subcategories that are currently being studied as potential ways to combat climate change. The methods include placing reflectors in space in order to make sure that solar radiation is not longer a significant factor, placing aerosols into the stratosphere, increasing the albedo of the clouds which would increase the reflectivity, and changes to the albedo of different structures and locations on earth's surface such as in grasslands, cities, deserts and croplands. I think that some of these ideas are more realistic than others such as increasing the albedo of different locations on the earth. I do not think that it is a good idea to but reflectors in space, however, because it seems too unrealistic and would have a significant cost and risk and the same time which in almost any case scenario is not a good decision. The other category discussed is the removal of CO2. This provides several methods that are much more realistic and easy to implement that could help us see improvements much faster. There are many different ways to remove CO2 such as increasing the land sink through afforestation, which is currently being utilized in different places around the world such as Tanzania and India and has the potential to be a very good way to help mediate the issue. Another method is through increasing the ocean sink using various methods such as a solubility pump and increasing the alkalinity of the ocean. One aspect of Troy's presentation that I really did not understand was when he began to get into the mathematics of how the concentrations and levels of carbon and other substances are calculated. I think that this type of study is very interesting, but it is not something that makes sense to me. Although, I do think that having him explain this very long procedure was helpful in a sense because it actually showed how the different figures are calculated and it helped to give a greater appreciation to just how intricate and demanding this entire process is.