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Geoengineering Is Being Pushed By Politicians and Scientists ... But It May Do MORE HARM THAN GOOD

George Washington's picture




 

Proposals to use geoengineering to fight global warming are in the news.   Indeed, humans have been intentionally modifying weather for climate control for decades.  But geoengineering has not always been thought of as a way to fight global warming .

In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, scientists and presidents considered geoengineering to stop a new ice age and create more warming.

On April 28, 1975, Newsweek wrote an article stating:

Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing the variables of climatic uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies. The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.

Here is a reprint of the article in the Washington Times, and here is a copy of the 1975 Newsweek article.

Why were scientists considering melting the arctic ice cap?

Because they were worried about a new ice age.

Newsweek discussed the 1975 article in 2006:

In April, 1975 … NEWSWEEK published a small back-page article about a very different kind of disaster. Citing “ominous signs that the earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically,” the magazine warned of an impending “drastic decline in food production.” Political disruptions stemming from food shortages could affect “just about every nation on earth.” Scientists urged governments to consider emergency action to head off the terrible threat of . . . well, if you had been following the climate-change debates at the time, you’d have known that the threat was: global cooling…

 

Citizens can judge for themselves what constitutes a prudent response-which, indeed, is what occurred 30 years ago. All in all, it’s probably just as well that society elected not to follow one of the possible solutions mentioned in the NEWSWEEK article: to pour soot over the Arctic ice cap, to help it melt.

Obama’s senior science adviser – John Holdren – was one of those warning of a catastrophic ice age.

The Boston Globe reported in 2005:

The grandest climate engineering schemes came from the Soviet Union. The most Promethean among them was a late 1950s proposal to dam the Bering Strait and, by pumping water from the Arctic Ocean into the Pacific, draw warm water northward from the Atlantic to melt the polar ice pack, making the Arctic Ocean navigable and warming Siberia. The leading Soviet climatologist, Mikhail I. Budyko, cautioned against it, arguing that the ultimate effects were too difficult to predict (though he himself had played with the idea of warming the Arctic by covering it in soot to decrease its reflectivity). John F. Kennedy, as a presidential candidate, suggested the United States look into collaborating on the project. While the two countries continued desultory discussions of the Bering Strait plan into the 1970s, the American government was by then losing interest in the whole field of weather modification.

Similarly, the American Institute of Physics notes:

Around 1956, Soviet engineers began to speculate that they might be able to throw a dam across the Bering Strait and pump water from the Arctic Ocean into the Pacific. This would draw warm water up from the Atlantic. Their aim was to eliminate the ice pack, make the Arctic Ocean navigable, and warm up Siberia. The idea attracted some notice in the United States — presidential candidate John F. Kennedy remarked that the idea was worth exploring as a joint project with the Soviets, and the discussion continued into the 1970s.

Soot is a major cause of ice warming and melting in the Arctic and in the Himalayas.  As NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies has shown, soot in the upper atmosphere ends up on the surface of ice sheets and glaciers, such as Arctic ice cap:

South Asia is estimated to have the largest industrial soot emissions in the world, and the meteorology in that region readily sweeps pollution into the upper atmosphere where it is easily transported to the North Pole.

If scientists had convinced policy-makers to pour soot over the Arctic ice cap in the 1970s, we might have had real problems. Damning the Bering Strait would have been disastrous.

First, Do No Harm

I have previously pointed out numerous decisions regarding the environment which have caused more harm than good, such as the government forcing a switch from one type of chemical to a chemical which turned out to be 4,470 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Here’s another one. The mongoose was introduced to Hawaii in order to control the rats (which were eating the sugar cane used to make rum). It didn’t work out very well – mongeese are daylight-loving creatures while rats are nocturnal – and the mongeese trashed the native species in Hawaii.

My whole point is that we should make sure that our actions do not cause more harm than good.

For example:

And see this.

 

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Thu, 02/19/2015 - 15:22 | 5804618 goneYonder
goneYonder's picture

"Good order results spontaneously when things are left alone." Chuang Tzu.

A control freak's nightmare.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 14:30 | 5804309 steelhead23
steelhead23's picture

I'm all for controlled scientific expirements to better understand atmospheric dynamics.  That's how we expand human understanding.  However, the earth is not a laboratory and large-scale experiments in the natural environment are reckless and irresponsible, which is a pretty good description of the global MIC.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:55 | 5803872 Smiley
Smiley's picture

Sometimes I can't tell if the 'scientists' are reciting research or tripping on LSD.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:48 | 5803841 VooDoo6Actual
VooDoo6Actual's picture

Actually the Wars for the planetary control of the the Grand Game is polluting far more tha typical humans do rearding pollutant footprints. Politicians flying private Jets instead of public, Military Industrial War Complex of US / China & Russia burn how much pollutants into the atmosphere ? Nuclear testing STILL going on contaminates how much exactly ? Bikini Atolls damge ? Fissile material waste cntaminiation leaching into the Eartjh's soil ? How much lead contaminants into the ME right now ? How much Oil burning  fuels while the Wars wage .... They had Solar / hydrogen / Bio Fuel cars years earlier if they wanted to develop thoses already existing resources. Humans have been conned it's that simple. Long past wake up time.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:37 | 5803794 the grateful un...
the grateful unemployed's picture

what a prolific species we are. our population has doubled in 100 years. most of them are at the poorest end of the economic scale, so they do things which are harmful to the environment, burning wood and coal for heat, diverting natural waterways, clear cutting forest for farming, then exhausting the soil and cutting more forest. once people move out of poverty their birth rate goes down, and their use of energy is more efficient. we have to give poor people more money, the anti-bernanke must rise up and say, fuck you bankers, i am dropping money out of helicopters over bangladesh. 

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:34 | 5803782 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

Science is hard. Good science is almost impossible. 95% of the crap we 'know' is wrong. 

Politicans differ from scientists in that real scientists understand this situation.....and real scientists don't have an agenda.

Politicians are also insane in that they think they can utilize science to make their point. I once had to explain the reproductive process to a politician of the female persuation. You would not believe what she thought at the onset.

....we did finally get it 'straightened out' however.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:50 | 5803852 the grateful un...
the grateful unemployed's picture

the government isn't necessarily creating the dialogue on global warming. corporations would like to see it end, and corporations buy the ad time that sells the politicians to you the sheeple. what happens i believe is that government wants to direct research along predetermined lines, they set up grants and such, and they basically exclude anyone whose research tends to disagree with them. fine. what happens after that is the dialogue changes, and the professors who led the research on governments pet project A, are suddenly interested in B. these professors have been long tenured, so government now has to develop new research that discredits B, and wait for the older professors to retire. in the meantime the professors brought in to discredit B discover a problem with C, and the whole thing begins again. (they can't just put the professors on the payroll and say do this, that would be fascism!) its interesting how quickly they countered the claims about vaccines causing autism. they were able to do that because they are getting more efficient at controlling the message, but also many of the experts doing autism research had been doing it for years, and they could be either ignored, or retired out of the system. while we speak the measles epidemic is going in California, and oddly enough the neighborhoods were parents are not vaccinating their children are the wealthiest zip codes. the wealthy are not stupid and they dont buy the government reseach on autism.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:04 | 5803653 Zirpedge
Zirpedge's picture

Nature is a cold cruel and unfeeling mistress. I will trust the weather to politicians thank you.

Pour some coal ash on me, in the name of love.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:52 | 5803865 JRobby
JRobby's picture

How about some 10 molar HCL follwed by bleach and lime?

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:12 | 5803689 USA USA
USA USA's picture

If government was really worried about global warming, they ALL should be eliminated as THEY are the biggest source of HOT AIR!

And that is being nice.

PS FU OB

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:21 | 5803608 VooDoo6Actual
VooDoo6Actual's picture

The UNPROVEN tampering with GAIA is beyond stupid. It suggests a psychosis of "Creator / God Syndrome" beyond comprehension. It's not science if it's motivated for PROFIT & CONTROL only. Prove the science first & full disclosure w/ Transparancy w/o the hubris of deception for manipulation & profit. Creating a deliberate Malthusian Crisis's / Check's w/ Exotic Weapons i.e. HAARP / SRM / ENMOD / DEW's & Plasma Laser Pulses fired @ the Sun to create a CME / EMP etc et alia for an agenda of Eco Terrorism is beyond sinister & evil. Bees dying from the Glycol Phosphate, Monarch Butterflies perhishing, Birds dropping from the ELF / HLF waves they are unknowingly flying into when HAARP & Scalar Energy is directed into the Inonosphere exciting / augmenting the tropical streams, Star Fishes, Sea Lions, Whales, Radioactive fissile material & waste leaching through the concrete into the GAIA's water & soil etc. Stop the madness of the madmen playing the "Grand Game" to rule the planet. Let people live, spend the money on real education rather tha exotic weaponry & harmful drugs etc. Disclose the truth so people can self determine & educate themselves w/ truth.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 11:30 | 5803449 magne13
magne13's picture

The arrogance of these scientists and politicians is truly remarkable, the fact of the matter is we humans can't control shit, that big globe in the sky that propels energy at the speed of light toward earth controls our climate, humans have nothing to do with it. Think of the earth as simply a piece of the Suns atmospheric layer and the fact of the matter is no matter what we humans do here on earth has ZERO influence on the planet, because ultimately we will destroy ourselves through our own pollution and the earth will go on for billions of more years, plain and simple. I wish these smart scientists would devote their time to creating an eternal non polluting energy source, instead of wasting their time thinking they can control a system that is completely out of human hands!

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 11:30 | 5803440 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

I write this as my thermometer here near Chicago says -11F. I was in high school when that Newsweek article came out. There was a lot of concern about the impending ice age and how to deal with food production.

Perhaps this global climate change stuff sells to younger folks since they have no experience with governmental agencies touting catastorphe in order to push a draconian agenda, only to reverse course at a later date. Take cholesterol in foods as a current example.

And, it seems few people are willing to be skeptics and question the models and data that lead to these conclusions.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 11:02 | 5803284 drdolittle
drdolittle's picture

Hahaha. They can't predict the weather beyond 7-10 days with any accuracy and within that timeframe they still screw it up. Now they want me to get on board with geoengineering. People are idiots. The biggest problem is the failure to acknowledge what you don't understand.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 11:31 | 5803453 JRobby
JRobby's picture

Because they assume they know what they are doing. They don't.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:33 | 5803146 JRobby
JRobby's picture

When one assumes they have a greater plan than God, the path to evil is the only available way for them.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 11:55 | 5803600 JRobby
JRobby's picture

At least one agent of Satan is participating here today. Assume there are more.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:35 | 5803114 Pitchman
Pitchman's picture

First article on geoengineering (not really abt. it) on Zero Edge; now why is that???

This has been going on for years.  Look up Geoengineering.  Look up patents, chemicals used in Solar Radiation Management and over the horizon radar and the methods of dispersal and the patent holders. 

Then look up the toxic levels of Aluninum. Barrium, and Strontium being found in air, water and soil samples and wonder why the EPA no longer tests for Aluminuin.  THEN LOOK The F. UP.  

It has all become much mor apperant to get you used to it.  Now they will say it is needed or we will all die; clasic Hegalian Dialectic. 

And the SHEEPLE, they will demand it.  All the while Alshimers and Autisim goes through the roof.  It is true; you can - pretty much - fool all the people, all the time.

You are literally upder attack people!

See:

Climate Engineering, How It Changed My World

 

 

Engineered Winter Storm Assault, The Weather Makers Are Desperate For Headlines

And  See "LOOK UP" and the link to "Chemtrails Hate Michigan Today" at the bottom of Syria, Obama and PSYCHOPATHY

Inflection Point

 

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:48 | 5803217 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

This is not the first ZH posting on the subject. GW has discussed this subject several times in the past and I guest posted on ZH and on TwoIceFloes a three part series back in December of 2014.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 13:58 | 5804009 Nostradumbass
Nostradumbass's picture

Just read your Skyception series this morning Morpheus - it has reawakened my curiosity about our place in Universe again.Well, I never lost that curiosity as it surrounds my very being at all times, but you know what I meant. I read Velikovsky 30 years ago and have never been the same. I first observed the persistence of aerosol cloud trails in the late 1980's or early 1990's and have been watching ever since. I have considered what surviving a serious solar event/earth magnetosphere change might entail and there are really no good options it seems. Our dependence upon modern electrical and electronic technology is very concerning in this regard. It seems being an Amish or Mennonite farmer (in an underground cavern with water) might be the way to go. But for the short term, employing Faraday cages for electrical systems, living a simpler off-grid life in a fertile place away from the reach of stunned population centers seems like a good beginning.

As for my actions, I'll just take it all in stride and keep my mind open in fearless wonder of All That Is.

Great work and I will be passing it on.

I also support Two Ice Floes.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:32 | 5803140 Circle of DNA
Circle of DNA's picture

Good stuff! Reading it now...Thank you.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:45 | 5803203 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

Morpheus took his time and did his research over several months before writing this piece. Then as we were going through the editing process Morpheus added several more items to the three part series as he learned even more. By far this series has been the most popular guest post TwoIceFloes has had the honor to publish.

Mrs. Cog and I hope this is an evolving series and Morpheus comes back to TwoIceFloes to add to the series when he has more information to share.

Thank you Morpheus.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:32 | 5803769 Morpheus_at_TIF
Morpheus_at_TIF's picture

No, thank you. I am honored and humbled you shared this and allowed me to guest post on TwoIceFloes.

Be sure to check out their site.  Cog and Mrs. Cog has done an amazing job developing a community with many great resources and topics.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:32 | 5803764 Circle of DNA
Circle of DNA's picture

This is a quality piece!

I wanted you guys to run a series of articles on “psyops”-self-defense technics. I often tend to retreat when in a company of so called “Conspiracy haters” and wouldn’t mind to arm myself with some extra tools when dealing with these type of people. Normally, I try to reverse their conditioning with the very tools they were conditioned with but it is difficult to do so without pissing them off. Thank you.

 

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 13:07 | 5803932 New_Meat
New_Meat's picture

DNA:

"... wouldn’t mind to arm myself with some extra tools when dealing with these type of people."

Spending time with Kuhn will do you no harm.

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=structure+of+scie... e.g.

- Ned

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 12:35 | 5803785 Morpheus_at_TIF
Morpheus_at_TIF's picture

Thank you. I am glad you enjoyed reading it.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:13 | 5803058 Ratbagger
Ratbagger's picture

For the love of God. We cannot accurately predict the behavior of the Earth's climates. That means our models and our scientific understanding of what's going on is incomplete. We'd be fools to start tinkering with a system this massive without having models which can accurately predict its behavior.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:22 | 5803086 Ratbagger
Ratbagger's picture

We need to stop this nonsense immediately. Absolutely zero geoengineering until we have enough data to build an accurate model of the Earth and its climates.

Stop the geoengineering and let the Earth balance itself out. At the same time, we study its behavior until we can predict its movements. Then, and only then, do we start to modify variables. Seriously, how did these people end up in charge? Aren't we supposed to have learned scientists calling the shots on this? This is so dumb my language isn't sufficient to express it.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:12 | 5803053 manich
manich's picture

The wrong word that jumped out at me was:

"Scientists are considering all sorts of hair-brained schemes"

Look up at the sky sometimes. The days of considering, have long gone by.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:00 | 5803004 Zero_Head (not verified)
Zero_Head's picture

Manmade global warming manmade climate change manmade climate disruption has already melted both ice caps and NYC is now under water....and palm trees are growing in the North Pole.

 

97% of "scientists" agreed on that too...at least according to the socialist hebe media

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 09:37 | 5802939 Circle of DNA
Circle of DNA's picture

“Extinct—Extincter—Extinctest” by Dimitry Orlov.

Geoengeneering, Ukrain, Caliphate and some dark humor…all nicely tied together.

http://cluborlov.blogspot.ca/2015/02/extinctextincterextinctest.html

 

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 09:26 | 5802910 neuronius
neuronius's picture

Makes sense that they will start talking about this in the dead of winter when half the country is covered in snow.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:00 | 5803008 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

No more excuses to outlaw woodstoves and burning wood.  I'm doing my part.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:00 | 5803007 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

No more excuses to outlaw woodstoves and burning wood.  I'm doing my part.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:00 | 5803005 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

No more excuses to outlaw woodstoves and burning wood.  I'm doing my part.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 09:03 | 5802840 rsnoble
rsnoble's picture

Let me get this straight................all the talk about how dangerous it is because the ice caps are melting and we need taxes on it, etc etc etc and to go green and NOW they want to melt it on purpose? No wonder the politicians don't like the idea.

And as far as burrying trees...........the printing presses of the US and China should be enough lol.

I'm pretty sure our species is doomed.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 05:47 | 5802528 Oracle 911
Oracle 911's picture

I began question the sanity of the polticians and these "scienists" long time ago. Now my every fear was comfirmed.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 01:46 | 5802317 Alvin Fernald
Alvin Fernald's picture

Good article.
"The prestigious journal Science published a report showing that geoengineering to fight warming could INCREASE the risk of drought"
See CA and maybe WA.
WA has precious little snow in the Olympics coming into spring. Looks like forest fires again this summer.
Plus the navy has plans to run electronic warfare drills with their growlers over the Olympics as well.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 08:52 | 5802797 SafelyGraze
SafelyGraze's picture

"BBC notes that geoengineering could harm BILLIONS of people"

harm?

they meant eradicate.

hugs,
ted turner

 

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 08:50 | 5802796 SafelyGraze
SafelyGraze's picture

"BBC notes that geoengineering could harm BILLIONS of people"

and that would be just terrible.

hugs,
ted turner

 

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