News / Environment
Bristol expert fears playing god with planet
A Bristol scientist has said using technologies to change the earth’s climate in a bid to slow down long-term global warming would mean mankind had failed in its role as stewards of the planet.
Dr Matthew Watson from the University of Bristol said though that not deploying any of the ‘geoengineering’ projects could be “unethical”.
His statement comes after the publication of results of Britain’s first publicly funded study into technologies that could be used to slow down climate change.
These include spraying sea salt particles into clouds to try to brighten them and thus reflect more heat from the sun; another would pump aerosols or sulphur particles into the atmosphere to disperse sunlight; and others would see greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide sucked out of the air.
Dr Watson was principal investigator for the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (Spice) project.
He said he was terrified of the futuristic technologies, adding: “Whilst it is clear that temperatures could be reduced during deployment, the potential for misstep is considerable.
“Full scale deployment of climate engineering technologies will be the clearest indication that we have failed in our role as planetary stewards, but there is a point at which not deploying some technologies would be unethical.”
The Spice project is one of three projects to be unveiled at the Royal Society in London today.
Professor Piers Forster from Leeds University, and the principal investigator of the Integrated Assessment of Geoengineering Proposals project, said: “Our research shows that the devil is in the detail. Geoengineering will be much more expensive and challenging than previous estimates suggest and any benefits would be limited.”
Professor Steve Rayner from Oxford University and principal investigator for the Climate Geoengineering Governance project, added: “Take everything you hear both for and against geoengineering with a large grain of salt. Mostly it is too soon to know what any of these technology ideas would look like in practice or what would be their true cost and benefit.
“But it’s almost certain that geoengineering will be neither a magic bullet nor Pandora’s Box.”
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