Geo-engineering for climate action – not popularidea
Climate engineering faces PR problem Anna Salleh ABC 14 Jan 14 The general public have an overall negative image of climate engineering, which includes proposals to use mirrors in space to reduce global warming, a new study has found.
Although some were viewed more positively than others, the study published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change, suggests the public is nervous and unsure about implementing them.
Climate engineering uses technologies to reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth or directly remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Some of the more ambitious proposals are to reflect sunlight using orbiting mirrors in space, or inject tiny particles known as aerosols into the stratosphere.
Climate engineering also includes carbon dioxide removal technologies such as biochar, a very stable form of charcoal that could be locked away in farmlands.
“It’s quite an extraordinary idea,” says lead author, Professor Malcolm Wright, from Massey University‘s School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing.
In an online survey, Wright and colleagues asked more than 2000 Australians and New Zealanders what they thought about different climate engineering technologies……
Unknown effects
Survey respondents had to associate positive and negative attributes to each of the technologies.
Wright says the associations were overwhelmingly negative, with people concerned primarily with “unknown effects” of climate engineering.
“Around two thirds of associations were negative,” says Wright.
“There was an incredibly striking pattern. While the reaction was negative overall for all techniques, it was much more positive for carbon dioxide removal than it was for solar radiation management.”…….http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/01/14/3925334.htm
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