UK Metropolitan Office pushing geoengineering agenda on own website

The pros and cons of geoengineering

6.4.09 / UK Metropolitan Office

Geoengineering solutions to curb global warming may offer advantages in combating temperature rise, but could also significantly damage the earth’s eco-systems, climate scientists say in a new study published recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

One such proposal is the deliberate brightening of clouds by adding sea-salt particles to increase their reflectivity. Extensive sheets of low-level cloud exist off the coasts of South Africa, South America and the western USA, and by ‘seeding’ these clouds to reflect more sunlight away from the Earth, global warming could be slowed.

Met Office scientists, led by Dr Andy Jones, have investigated the effects of this particular way of modifying climate using the Met Office Hadley Centre coupled climate model, and find that global warming could be slowed by up to 25 years. While there is clearly significant benefit in delaying increased temperatures, the results also reveal the downside to such geoengineering. The most serious is a sharp decrease in rainfall over South America, which would likely accelerate the die-back of the Amazon rainforest and the subsequent loss of one of the world’s major carbon stores.

Commenting on the study, Andy Jones said: “While some areas do benefit from geoengineering of this sort there are other, very significant regions, where the response could be very detrimental, raising questions about the practicality of such a scheme.”

Notes

The Met Office Hadley Centre is the UK’s foremost centre for climate change research. Mainly funded by DECC (the Department of Energy and Climate Change), Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and the Ministry of Defence, it provides information and advice to the UK Government on climate change issues.

For further information:

Met Office Press Office  +44 (0)1392 886655
E-mail: pressoffice@metoffice.gov.uk

Met Office Customer Centre  0870 900 0100
If you’re outside the UK  +44 (0)1392 885680

China’s weather modification operation brought heavy blizzard, shutting down several highways

China’s artificially-induced snow closes 12 highways

2.20.09 / Nick Macfie / Reuters

CHINA has closed 12 highways around the capital Beijing today because of heavy snow brought on after seeding clouds with chemicals.

All outbound highways were closed in Hebei, the drought-hit northern province surrounding Beijing, after heavy snow fell last night, Xinhua news agency said.

In all, 12 highways, including one linking Beijing and Shenyang, capital of northeastern Liaoning province, were closed.

Hebei got its first heavy snow of this year yesterday. The provincial weather bureau said that snow too was “enhanced” by artificial seeding.

“The snow has brought moisture to the soil, which may help end the drought,” Guo Yingchun, a senior engineer of the provincial meteorological observatory, was quoted as saying.

She said that 313 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide were fired into the clouds from (last) night to (this) morning, “a procedure that made the snow a lot heavier.”

Hebei forecasters said flurries would continue through tonight in the northern part of the province.

Beijing is enduring its longest drought in 38 years, according to weather bureau records.

Israeli company Mekorot announces it engages in weather modification operations

Israeli Water Company Seeds Rain Clouds

3.1.09 / Arutz Sheva

(IsraelNN.com) The Israeli water company Mekorot announced that it regularly seeds rain clouds as a method of bringing more water to the Jewish State. According to the head of the project, Shimon Chamu, during this past weekend the company flew over 46 hours of rain seeding flights.

Since November, Mekorot has flown around 290 hours in an attempt to create more rain. This represents a large increase from flights last year which were only around 138 hours. According to studies, the cloud seeding method has successfully increased rainfall in the north by 13 percent.