The growing problem of changing environmental conditions caused by climate destabilization is well recognized as one of the defining issues of our time. The root problem is greenhouse gas emissions, and the fundamental solution is curbing those emissions. Climate geoengineering has often been considered to be a "last-ditch" response to climate change, to be used only if climate change damage should produce extreme hardship. Although the likelihood of eventually needing to resort to these efforts grows with every year of inaction on emissions control, there is a lack of information on these ways of potentially intervening in the climate system. As one of a two-book report, this volume of Climate Intervention discusses albedo modification - changing the fraction of incoming solar radiation that reaches the surface. This approach would deliberately modify the energy budget of Earth to produce a cooling designed to compensate for some of the effects of warming associated with greenhouse gas increases. The prospect of large-scale albedo modification raises political and governance issues at national and global levels, as well as ethical concerns. Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth discusses some of the social, political, and legal issues surrounding these proposed techniques. It is far easier to modify Earth's albedo than to determine whether it should be done or what the consequences might be of such an action. One serious concern is that such an action could be unilaterally undertaken by a small nation or smaller entity for its own benefit without international sanction and regardless of international consequences. Transparency in discussing this subject is critical. In the spirit of that transparency, Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth was based on peer-reviewed literature and the judgments of the authoring committee; no new research was done as part of this study and all data and information used are from entirely open sources. By helping to bring light to this topic area, this book will help leaders to be far more knowledgeable about the consequences of albedo modification approaches before they face a decision whether or not to use them.

The National Research Council report Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth (NRC, 2015) reviewed the state of the science and provided high-level findings and recommendations regarding SG methods. This current study was tasked to update the 2015 assessment of the state of understanding and to provide recommendations for how to establish a research program, what to encompass in the research agenda, and what mechanisms to employ for governing this research.

Stabilizing the world’s climates means cutting carbon dioxide pollution. There’s no way around it. But what if that’s not enough? What if it’s too difficult to accomplish in the time allotted or, worse, what if it’s so late in the game that even cutting carbon emissions to zero, tomorrow, wouldn’t do? Enter solar geoengineering. The principle is simple: attempt to cool Earth by reflecting more sunlight back into space. The primary mechanism, shooting particles into the upper atmosphere, implies more pollution, not less. If that doesn’t sound scary, it should. There are lots of risks, unknowns, and unknowables. In Geoengineering: The Gamble, climate economist Gernot Wagner provides a balanced take on the possible benefits and all-too-real risks, especially the so-called “moral hazard” that researching or even just discussing (solar) geoengineering would undermine the push to cut carbon emissions in the first place. Despite those risks, he argues, solar geoengineering may only be a matter of time. Not if, but when. As the founding executive director of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program, Wagner explores scenarios of a geoengineered future, offering an inside-view of the research already under way and the actions the world must take to guide it in a productive direction.

“Thoughtful, informative, and darkly entertaining. It’s the best treatment of this important (and scary) topic you can find.” —Elizabeth Kolbert Right now, a group of scientists is working on ways to minimize the catastrophic impact of global warming. But they’re not designing hybrids or fuel cells or wind turbines. They’re trying to lower the temperature of the entire planet. And they’re doing it with huge contraptions that suck CO2 from the air, machines that brighten clouds and deflect sunlight away from the earth, even artificial volcanoes that spray heat-reflecting particles into the atmosphere. This is the radical and controversial world of geoengineering, which only five years ago was considered to be “fringe.” But as Jeff Goodell points out, the economic crisis, combined with global political realities, is making these ideas look sane, even inspired. Goodell himself started out as a skeptic, concerned about tinkering with the planet’s thermostat. We can’t even predict next week’s weather, so how are we going to change the temperature of whole regions? What if a wealthy entrepreneur shoots particles into the stratosphere on his own? Who gets blamed if something goes terribly wrong? And perhaps most disturbing, what about wars waged with climate control as the primary weapon? There are certainly risks, but Goodell believes the alternatives could be worse. In the end, he persuades us that geoengineering may just be our last best hope—a Plan B for the environment. His compelling tale of scientific hubris and technical daring is sure to jump-start the next big debate about the future of life on earth. “Goodell explores with infectious curiosity and thoughtful narration this strange, promising, and untested suite of climate fixes.” —BusinessWeek “A quick, enjoyable read through a complex, timely topic. And after you read it, you’ll never look at the sky or the ocean—or Earth, really—in quite the same way again.” —The Christian Science Monitor

Myth and religion, poetry and prose, painting and music attest to the fascination of reflections of the sun on the surface of the sea. For D.H. Lawrence, Henri Matisse and many others, the experience of sunlight on the sea gives vigour and vitality to our lives. This short book is one philosopher's enquiry into the significance of this experience, an attempt to articulate the meaning of an experience that many people both need and cherish. The starting point is the undeniable beauty of glittering reflections on the sea, the most perfect of all beauties, according to Arthur Schopenhauer. Inspiration is then drawn from ancient traditions of thought - Chinese, Greek, Indian - that emphasised the unity of beauty, goodness and truth. The question addressed is what the beauty we find in sunlight on water shows about our understanding of the good life and of the way of things. In some chapters, a parallel question is asked, by way of counterpoint, about the significance of a contrasting kind of beauty - the shadowy and subdued beauty that has been especially appreciated in Japanese culture. In the glistening surface of a sunlit sea, the author argues, there is a metaphor for and an expression of aspects of the good life - happiness, spontaneity and intimacy with nature. In looking at this surface, we have a glimpse of how we would want our relationship to the world to be. But reflections of the sun in water are also a metaphor for or an epiphany of reality. This is the world as it is prior to being subjected to human conceptual schemes and purposes. It is the world as an integrated whole of experience - a quicksilver, soft-edged, ephemeral realm whose source is a mystery. In the swirling, ever-changing and ever-merging reflections on the surface of a sea whose depths are invisible to us, there is a symbol of the way of things, of what Chinese thinkers called the Dao. This book is an exercise in phenomenology: its aim is to expose the meaning of a familiar experience of beauty. The author shows how this experience, as expressive of the good and the true, is - in a sense deeper, perhaps, than Lawrence and Matisse intended - life-enhancing. Whether or not the book succeeds in its aim will be judged by people who, in the words of one travel writer, can find 'no escape from the mirror-like expanse' of a gleaming sea: it is an experience that follows them about like an 'all-pervading, inevitable melody'.

The National Research Council report Climate Intervention: Reflecting Sunlight to Cool Earth (NRC, 2015) reviewed the state of the science and provided high-level findings and recommendations regarding SG methods. This current study was tasked to update the 2015 assessment of the state of understanding and to provide recommendations for how to establish a research program, what to encompass in the research agenda, and what mechanisms to employ for governing this research.

"During her 70-year ministry the author spoke, through her pen, to young people, to church members, and to the world in the The Youth's Instructor, the Review and Herald, and The Signs of the Times. Selections for this book have been drawn from these three periodicals as well as from her books and previously unpublished manuscripts and letters"--Foreword.