Present knowledge does not permit accurate specification of the dangerous level of human-made GHGs. However, it is much lower than has commonly been assumed. If we have not already passed the dangerous level, the energy infrastructure in place ensures that we will pass it within several decades.
We conclude that a feasible strategy for planetary rescue almost surely requires a means of extracting GHGs from the air. Development of CO2 capture at power plants, with below-ground CO2 sequestration, may be a critical element. Injection of the CO2 well beneath the ocean floor assures its stability (House et al. 2006). If the power plant fuel is derived from biomass, such as cellulosic fibres grown without excessive fertilization that produces N2O or other offsetting GHG emissions, it will provide continuing drawdown of atmospheric CO2.
 clipped from environment.independent.co.uk
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2Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
3Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA
*Author for correspondence jhansen@giss.nasa.gov
1 comment:
a friend of mine in San Francisco, a poet there, said re glo war and my idea to plan and design and build polar cities for future survival, he said: "You are right, Glo war is the 1000 pound gorilla in the room nobody wantrs to talk about..."
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