Geoengineering - Background, Types, Methods of Geoengineering notes for UPSC!

Geoengineering is a form of climate engineering or human climate intervention that aims to change the planet’s long-term climatic tendencies. Today’s geoengineering concepts frequently centre on reversing global warming and removing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

However, theoretically, large-scale geoengineering programmes might aim to change any part of the planet’s ecosystems or climate system, including addressing the effects of global warming, ocean acidification, melting arctic ice, or volcanic eruptions that penetrate the surface of the planet.

In this article, we will cover the entire Geoengineering in detail, What is the main purpose, What are the types of Geoengineering, Carbon and Solar Engineering, Geoengineering methods, Early and Latest Geoengineering, and some of the key highlights. Geoengineering is one of the important topics in the GS I section of the UPSC IAS exam.

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What is Geoengineering?

Geoengineering and Climate engineering are two related terms. It is a theoretical strategy to lessen the consequences of climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or by reducing the quantity of sunlight that reaches the planet’s surface. Geoengineering, often known as climate engineering, includes techniques like managing solar radiation and fertilizing oceanic iron.

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What is the main purpose?

• The majority of geoengineering initiatives aim to counteract the detrimental impacts of industrial civilization on the planet’s climate.
• For instance, deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels are increasing the levels of greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) into the Earth’s atmosphere and stratosphere.
• Humans may reduce carbon emissions and save resources to solve atmospheric carbonization, but geoengineering plans take it a step further by actively attempting to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and stratosphere.

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What are the types of Geoengineering?

In order to combat climate change, purposeful large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems is known as geoengineering.

Numerous geoengineering methods have been proposed. These can typically be divided into two categories –

Carbon Geoengineering

Carbon Geoengineering is also known as Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) strategies aim to reduce atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases, directly combating the growing greenhouse effect and ocean acidification. To have a major impact on greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, these strategies would need to be applied globally. One of the methods is given below, such as

• Biochar – It is created by “charring” biomass and burying it to lock up its carbon in the ground.

Solar Geoengineering

In order to reduce the temperature rise brought on by rising quantities of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which absorb energy and raise temperatures, Solar Geoengineering or Solar Radiation Management (SRM) techniques try to reflect a small fraction of the Sun’s energy back into space. The following are a few suggested technologies –

• Enhancing Albedo – is making clouds or the land more reflective so that more of the sun’s heat is reflected back into space.
• Space Reflectors – in outer space, preventing a small part of sunlight from reaching the Earth.
• Stratospheric Aerosols – are small, reflecting particles that are added to the upper atmosphere to reflect some sunlight before it reaches the Earth’s surface.

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Geoengineering Methods

The method known as geoengineering is intended to actively combat the consequences of climate change. It often involves extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air or reducing the quantity of sunlight that reaches the surface of the globe.

• Combat global warming entails planned interventions on a worldwide scale.
• Increasing the ability of trees and plants to absorb Carbon Dioxide from the air, burning heavy wood in power plants with carbon capture technology, producing voluminous charcoal and burying it to lock carbon into the soil, grazing cattle in a way that turns grasslands into massive carbon sinks, fertilizing the oceans with iron to encourage the growth of algae that can absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, etc. are all ways to remove Carbon Dioxide from the air.
• There are several ways to reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth, including using unmanned ships to increase cloud cover above the ocean by misting sea water into the atmosphere, launching sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere, and installing mirrors in space that reflect sunlight away from the planet.
• One of the most well-known methods is cloud seeding, which involves introducing particles of solid carbon dioxide(dry ice) or silver iodide by using aircraft and drones as carriers into clouds that are predicted to contain rain in an effort to send rain to dry fields.
• Additionally, cloud seeding has been employed to try to weaken tropical storms.
• In an effort to affect weather patterns in favor of agriculture, cloud seeding operates on a regional scale.
• Since there is growing evidence of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations and the possibility of global warming, current geoengineering plans have concentrated on the global scale.
  • Large volumes of atmospheric CO2 are absorbed by the seas, where it is combined with seawater to generate carbonic acid (H2CO3).
  • Seawater’s pH decreases when oceanic carbonic acid concentrations increase.
  • Coral reefs and other calcareous animals like sea urchins might be harmed as a result of this ocean acidification.
  • By lowering the CO2 level, carbonic acid production would be slowed and possibly stopped, which would lessen the acidification of the oceans.

Early & Latest Geoengineering Proposals

Early Geoengineering Proposals

The first geoengineering concepts date back to World War 2 when funding for research on weather control as a military tactic was given to experts from the US and the Soviet Union. The list below includes a few of the first geoengineering suggestions.

• By raising the air temperature over Siberia, in Russia, efforts are being made to make it more livable.
• The Bering Strait and Strait of Gibraltar are dammed to warm the Arctic region.

Latest Geoengineering Proposals

• According to research from Harvard and Yale universities that were published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the use of a method called stratospheric aerosol injection might reduce the rate of global warming in half.
• The procedure would entail shooting copious volumes of sulphate particles into the lower stratosphere of the Earth at altitudes as high as 12 miles (around 20 kilometre). Large naval-style weapons, balloons, or specially constructed high-altitude aircraft will be used to deliver the sulphates.
• The goal is to increase the planet’s albedo, or reflecting power, in order to protect the Earth from just enough sunlight to help keep temperatures low. This approach would resemble what powerful volcanoes accomplish.
  • E.g -In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991. The eruption ranked as the second-largest of the 20th century. The eruption produced 20 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide aerosols, which decreased the temperature of the atmosphere by about one degree Fahrenheit. The sulphates finally plummeted to Earth, thus the effect only lasted a couple of years. Additionally, it had an impact on precipitation in many regions of the planet.
• The Geoengineering strategy would require creating a brand-new, specially designed tanker with significant payload capacities, which might take up to 15 years, according to the paper, which does concede that it is totally hypothetical.

Proposed Geoengineering Techniques to counteract climate change

To counter climate change these are the following effective Geoengineering techniques that can be used for better results.

• Afforestation

It is the practice of planting trees on a large scale.

• Bio-energy with carbon capture and sequestration

Growing biomass burning it to produce electricity, and capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide released during the process constitutes bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration.

• Ambient Air Capture –

Building sizable devices that can directly extract carbon dioxide from ambient air and store it in another location.

• Ocean Fertilisation

It is the practice of strategically placing nutrients in the ocean to boost primary production, which absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

• Enhanced Weathering

Increased weathering is the exposure of significant amounts of minerals that will interact with atmospheric carbon dioxide and store the resultant chemical in the ocean or soil.

• Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement

Enhancing ocean alkalinity, rocks like limestone, silicates, or calcium hydroxide can be ground up, dispersed, or dissolved in the ocean to improve its capacity to store carbon and prevent ocean acidification.

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Chemicals Used in Geoengineering

The following list includes the chemicals used in geoengineering projects.

• Sulfur dioxide
• Carbonyl Sulfide
• Hydrogen sulfide
• Sulfuric acid
• Dimethyl Sulfide

Pros and Cons of Geoengineering

There are many pros and cons of Geoengineering and some of it is listed below.

Pros of Geoengineering

• It strives to actively undo climate damage – While mitigation strategies for climate change, such as reducing emissions and protecting forests, are important, they do not actively undo the harm caused by human action. A true reversal, according to geoengineering proponents, may be possible.
• Its effects could be seen quickly – Some geoengineering techniques, such as injecting aerosols into the atmosphere or introducing iron particles into the ocean, could result in a reduction in global average temperatures more quickly than altering human behavior.
• It might generate employment opportunities – This technique can be used by scientists, engineers, and other people because geoengineering research and projects will create more employment opportunities.
• Might lessen carbon dioxide growth, which would lessen global warming.
• Using Geoengineering the possibility of chilling the poles is greater than that of cooling tropical areas, thus stopping the ice loss there.
• It will not lead to any harmful substances.

Cons of Geoengineering

Many of the activities associated with the relatively new field of geoengineering only exist in theory or on a modest scale. There are several issues associated with Geoengineering such as those given below.

• It poses unidentified climatic hazards – Projects involving geoengineering might change Earth systems in unanticipated ways. These projects pose moral risks to scientists since it is impossible to completely understand the adverse effects of iron seeding or aerosol injections until they are used.
• It might not work – Geoengineering programmes use untested technologies. They must be viewed with skepticism until these geoengineering technologies are thoroughly demonstrated to work without harmful side effects.
• It could not be financially practical – Reforestation, for example, is a relatively cheap and simple form of geoengineering. Others demand a significant commitment from the public and the government.
• In many places, the method might lead to less precipitation, moist soil, and river flow.
• Sulfur chemicals being injected into the stratosphere are anticipated to increase the amount of acid that is deposited on the ground and deplete the ozone layer.
• After being released into the atmosphere, the aerosol cannot be taken out. TechGniques for injecting stratospheric aerosols may endanger crop output, induce droughts, or result in extreme weather.
• Additionally, rising greenhouse gas emissions, which are a major contributor to global warming, are not addressed by the recommendations. Few contest the fact that it just serves as a Band-Aid solution.
• Despite being more expensive and dangerous in the long run, solar radiation management is still a significantly worse solution than greenhouse gas emissions.
• In addition, there are concerns about who should be permitted to do what and when in relation to geoengineering’s ethical and governmental implications.

Conclusion

In an unprecedented and uncontrollable way, the atmosphere and climate are already changing as a result of the accumulation of greenhouse gases. To ascertain whether solar geoengineering would be effective and safe, climate researchers should investigate this technology. Political scientists must begin considering how to put such a groundbreaking global endeavor into action in addition to this. The only thing left to do at that point is for society and governments to decide whether to take the unimaginably challenging step.

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UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Q 1. Explain the latest development in the Geoengineering field. (250 words)

Q 2. Elaborate on the different ways of Geoengineering to counteract climate change. (250 words)

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