Geoengineering is no solution to climate change

Tinkering with our entire planetary system is not a silver bullet. It's an expression of political despair, writes Greenpeace's Doug Parr

Doug Parr
guardian.co.uk,
Monday September 01 2008 01:21 BST

It is a testament to the world's catastrophic levels of inertia that when it comes to dealing with climate change, a relatively simple physical phenomenon, "geoengineering solutions" are now being seriously looked at by scientists.
The ideas on show today range from the distant but interesting to the outright dangerous. However, the wider point is not the pros and cons of particular technologies, but that the scientific community is becoming so scared of our collective inability to tackle climate emissions that such outlandish schemes are being considered for serious study. We already have the technology and know-how to make dramatic cuts in global emissions - but it's not happening, and those closest to the climate science are coming near to pressing the panic button.
Politically, the West needs to lead the climate fight. Most of our emissions come from fossil fuels used in the production of energy - but there should be no shortage of power. The amount of energy that the Sun beats down onto the Earth's surface each year is more than 10,000 times greater than our annual energy use. And we're not short on clean technology - solar photovoltaics, concentrated solar thermal power stations, wind, biomass and increasingly tidal technologies are all demonstrated and available.
These could be deployed rapidly if we were able to muster the kind of political will and serious levels of finance that were necessary to perpetrate the Iraq war. So why do we find ourselves seeking geoengineering solutions as some kind of magic bullet to counter the climate problem? While signs of panic emerge from the science community, decisions are made in the UK that will entrench new greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come. Those who oppose these decisions face the wrath of a lethargic state. Over the summer a grassroots, climate camp protest about new coal-fired power stations saw as many police deployed as protestors.
While the real climate solutions are blocked by vested interests seeking big bucks from coal, runways and forest destruction, our government tells us that it is taking "tough decisions" by cosying up to them. The scientist's focus on tinkering with our entire planetary system is not a dynamic new technological and scientific frontier, but an expression of political despair.
· Doug Parr is chief scientist for Greenpeace UK