Geo-engineering Moratorium

SUBHEAD: UN to impose geo-engineering moratorium on risky climate techno-fixes, but the moratorium does not apply to the U.S., which has yet to ratify the convention.
 
 
Image above: Chemtrails in sky over Germany. From (http://cropfm.at/cropfm/jsp/index.jsp).  

By Staff on 28 October 2010 for Climate Ark -
(http://www.climateark.org/blog/2010/10/release-victory-victory-un-to.asp)

Major victory for common sense as hacking of planetary ecosystems is premature until such time as all other options are exhausted; and there are global protocols, consensus and a sound scientific basis for any geoengineering that may or may not occur. This is the 8th major conservation victory for Ecological Internet (EI) in 2010, though chronic lack of funds and a slow 11th annual fund-raiser makes for an uncertain future for EI’s ground-breaking biocentric advocacy.

Ecological Internet welcomes reports that the 193-member UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will close its tenth biennial meeting with a de facto moratorium on geo-engineering projects and experiments.

This is a tremendous victory for the ETC Group’s “Hands Off Mother Earth” campaign [1], which has carefully researched and presented the case for such a moratorium on “planet hacking”, and with whom Ecological Internet is affiliated. “Any private or public experimentation or adventurism intended to manipulate the planetary thermostat will be in violation of this carefully crafted UN consensus,” stated Silvia Ribeiro, Latin American Director of ETC Group.

In announcing the outcome, the ETC Group publicly thanked Ecological Internet “for help winning a moratorium on Geoengineering” and particularly those that had “written to CBD delegates and spread the word… Many many thanks for your active campaigning. Your letters… really had an impact.”

This is in reference to Ecological Internet’s Earth Action Network’s largest online email protest ever, where people from 83 countries sent 1,806,339 protest emails to CBD delegates just before the conference commenced [2]. Each delegate received just over 2,000 letters – just enough to make a critical ecological point, while being minimally disruptive – letting those in positions of power to do something know that global citizens are opposed to geoengineering. It appears to have made a huge difference in the outcome.

“Ecological Internet is simply thrilled to have been involved with the ETC Group led campaign to place a moratorium on geoengineering. The atmosphere is a global commons, and ‘hacking’ it to avoid reducing emissions, protecting old forests, and ending coal and tar sands is dangerous and irresponsible. The precautionary principle clearly justifies a ban on large-scale geoengineering experiments and implementation, until all other options are exhausted, and there are global protocols, consensus and a sound scientific basis for any geoengineering that may or may not occur,” explains Dr. Glen Barry, EI’s President. “This is likely the biggest victory EI’s large global network, together with allies, has ever achieved – as without this UN guidance, almost certainly private interests and climate-negligent countries were poised to launch large-scale, risky experiments upon our shared biosphere.”


Geoengineering is the proposed large scale manipulation of Earth’s oceans, soils and atmosphere with the intent of combating climate change. Geoengineering advocates have put forward a wide range of proposals to artificially modify these ecosystems to address climate change including: blasting sulfate particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun; dumping iron particles in the oceans to grow CO2-absorbing plankton; firing silver iodide into clouds to produce rain; genetically engineering crops to have reflective leaves; spraying seawater into clouds to make clouds whiter; dumping large quantities of plant matter into the ocean, and burning plants from a huge land area to produce charcoal for burying in soils. Geopiracy: The Case Against Geoengineering [3] is a new publication by ETC Group that provides an overview of the issues involved. Ecological Internet holds that modifying Earth at a planetary scale is so complex, and ecological and other side effects potentially so severe, that clearly humanity is incapable of safely engineering a biosphere. EI advocates for this and other ecologically sufficient positions necessary to achieve global ecological sustainability.


 
Video above: "What in the world are they spraying?" (part 1 of 7). From (http://www.youtube.com/user/LoneStar1776#g/c/F1C61CF5A3E443A2).  

See also: Reality Zone: What in the world are they spraying? (http://www.realityzone.com/whatspray.html)

SUBHEAD: Some background on United Nations decision concerning geo-engineering climate.  
UN Urged to Freeze Geo-Engineering  

By Chis Fujioka on 21 October 2010 for Reuters -  
(http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69K18320101021)

The United Nations should impose a moratorium on "geo-engineering" projects such as artificial volcanoes and vast cloud-seeding schemes to fight climate change, green groups say, fearing they could harm nature and mankind. The risks were too great because the impacts of manipulating nature on a vast scale were not fully known, the groups said at a major U.N. meeting in Japan aimed at combating increasing losses of plant and animal species.

Envoys from nearly 200 countries are gathered in Nagoya, Japan, to agree targets to fight the destruction of forests, rivers and coral reefs that provide resources and services central to livelihoods and economies. A major cause for the rapid losses in nature is climate change, the United Nations says, raising the urgency for the world to do whatever it can to curb global warming and prevent extreme droughts, floods and rising sea levels.

Some countries regard geo-engineering projects costing billions of dollars as a way to control climate change by cutting the amount of sunlight hitting the earth or soaking up excess greenhouse gas emissions, particularly carbon dioxide. "It's absolutely inappropriate for a handful of governments in industrialized countries to make a decision to try geo-engineering without the approval of all the world's support," Pat Mooney, from Canada-headquartered advocacy organization ETC Group, told Reuters on the sidelines of the October 18-29 meeting.
"They shouldn't proceed with real-life, in-the-environment experimentation or the deployment of any geo-engineering until there is a consensus in the United Nations that this is okay."
Some conservation groups say geo-engineering is a way for some governments and companies to get out of taking steps to slash planet-warming emissions. The U.N. climate panel says a review of geo-engineering will be part of its next major report in 2013. SOLAR REFLECTORS Some of the geo-engineering schemes proposed include: -- Ocean fertilization. Large areas are sprinkled with iron or other nutrients to artificially spur growth of phytoplankton, which soak up carbon dioxide. But this could trigger harmful algal blooms, soak up nutrients and kill fish and other animals.
  • Spray seawater into the atmosphere to increase the reflectivity and condensation of clouds so they bounce more sunlight back into space.
  • Placing trillions of tiny solar reflectors out in space to cut the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth.
  • Artificial volcanoes. Tiny sulfate particles or other materials are released into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight, simulating the effect of a major volcanic eruption.
  • Carbon capture and storage. Supported by a number of governments and involves capturing CO2 from power stations, refineries and natural gas wells and pumping it deep underground.
Mooney said the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) should expand its de-facto moratorium on ocean fertilization agreed in 2008 to all geo-engineering, although the proposal was resisted by some countries, including Canada, earlier this year.

 Canada said in Nagoya that it would work with the CBD. "Canada was simply concerned about the lack of clarity on definitions including what activities are included in 'geo-engineering'," Cynthia Wright, head of the delegation, said in an email response. "Canada shares concerns of the international community about potential negative impacts of geo-engineering on biodiversity and is willing to work with other CBD Parties to avoid these impacts," she said. Environmentalists said geo-engineering went against the spirit of the Nagoya talks, which aims to set new targets for 2020 to protect nature, such as setting up more land and marine protected areas, cutting pollution and managing fishing. "We are certainly in favor of more (geo-engineering) research, as in all fields, but not any implementation for the time being because it's too dangerous. We don't know what the effects can be," said Francois Simard of conservation group IUCN.
"Improving nature conservation is what we should do in order to fight climate change, not trying to change nature."
See also:
"Geoengineering sparks international ban, first-ever congressional report" October 30, 2010 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/29/AR2010102906361.html)

4 comments :

Mauibrad said...

Certain interests in the U.S. appear to be firm in wanting to continue to disperse toxic aluminium and barium into our skies. One would think that without being able to do it around the world that doing it only in the U.S. can no longer be globally adequate if the stated reason for geoengineering chemtrails is to "mitigate 'global warming.'" Is there a reason anymore for large scale geoengineering in the U.S. and U.K only?

Anonymous said...

What about Chemtrails, the ongoing Geoemgineering program in plane sight? Will they also stop that one?

Mauibrad said...

Recommend people do a heavy metal cleanse. I'm doing one.

ghpacific said...

Check local coconut palms and see if you can peel off the bark as easily as shown in the video. If you can, that is all the proof you need to require the local ag commissioner to take action.

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