Geoengineering

White Roofs, Black Dust And Slippery Slopes: Climate Engineers Seek Techno-fix As Global Negotiations Get Underway

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ETC Group and Biofuelwatch
News Release
June 1, 2009
www.etcgroup.org, www.biofuelwatch.org.uk

White Roofs, Black Dust And Slippery Slopes:

Climate Engineers Seek Techno-fix As Global Negotiations Get Underway

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s speech last week advocating painting rooftops and roadways white to reflect sunlight may be yet another attempt to test the international waters on the controversial subject of geoengineering.[1] “We need an unequivocal statement from the White House that the U.S. Government is not green-lighting geoengineering in the run-up to Copenhagen,” said Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group, an Ottawa-based civil society organization monitoring new technologies. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meets in Denmark this December; UNFCCC subsidiary bodies are meeting this week...   Read More








Categories: Geoengineering

Pie in the Sky" Geo-engineering Competition Winning Entry

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Categories: Geoengineering

So Long, Venus! Hello Mars! Orbit Engineering Proposal Takes Top Prize in ETC Group's Pie-in-the-Sky Contest for Do-it-Yourself Geo-engineers

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ETC Group
News Release
Earth Day 22 April 2009
www.etcgroup.org
 
So Long, Venus! Hello Mars!
Orbit Engineering Proposal Takes Top Prize in ETC Group's
Pie-in-the-Sky Contest for Do-it-Yourself Geo-engineers

Vicky Schutte of Oakville, Ontario (Canada) took top honors today in ETC Group's international geo-engineering contest for her proposal to combat climate change by re-engineering the earth's orbit. Her idea is to nudge the planet further from the sun (and closer to Mars). In her entry, Schutte helpfully pointed out that expanding the earth's orbit would not only increase the distance between the earth and sun, thereby cooling the planet, but it would also take our birthdays longer to come around – climate salvation and fountain of youth all in one! The contest calling for geo-engineering proposals closed on April...   Read More










Categories: Geoengineering

Primer lugar en el concurso Tapando el Sol con un Dedo: Rediseñar la órbita de la Tierra

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¡Hasta luego Venus! ¡Hola Marte!

Rediseñar la órbita de la Tierra

Primer lugar en el concurso de geoingeniería del Grupo ETC
“Tapando el sol con un dedo”


Vicky Schutte de Oakville, Ontario (Canadá) recibió los honores hoy en el concurso internacional de geoingeniería para combatir el cambio climático, por su propuesta de rediseñar la órbita de la Tierra alejando el planeta del sol (y acercándolo a Marte). Schutte señaló atinadamente que expandir la órbita de la Tierra no sólo incrementará la distancia entre la Tierra y el sol, enfriando el planeta,...   Read More












Categories: Geoengineering

ETC Group Submission to UK's Royal Society Working Group on Geoengineering-this article has been moved

This article has been moved. It is now here.

Categories: Geoengineering

Obama and Geo-engineering? Yes, you can – but don't!

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ETC Group
News Release
8 April 2009
http://www.etcgroup.org

Obama and Geo-engineering?
Yes, you can – but don't!
Reported musing by Obama Advisor is dangerous

OTTAWA, April 8, 2009 – Today's reports[1] from an Associated Press interview with U.S. Chief Science Advisor John Holdren claiming that the White House could now be taking a serious look at geo-engineering – including the radical proposal to shoot nanoparticles of sulphate into the earth’s atmosphere – are causing alarm around the world. “If this is somebody's trial balloon to test Obama's acceptance of geo-engineering, the White House should shoot it down immediately,” says Pat Mooney, executive director of ETC Group, an Ottawa-based civil society organization that has been monitoring geo-engineering technologies since 2006....   Read More










Categories: Geoengineering

Global Civil Society Opposes Charred Earth Policy

Press Release                                                                        
6th April 2009

147 organisations from 44 countries warn against 'biochar' (large-scale charcoal) as a dangerous new false solution to climate change
 
An international declaration was today launched by 147 organisations opposing the growing hype and political support for Biochar. The groups signing the declaration "strongly oppose the inclusion of soils in carbon trade and offset mechanisms, including in the Clean Development...   Read More






Categories: Geoengineering

ETC Group Submission to Royal Society Working Group on Geo-Engineering (2009)

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6th April 2009

Dear Members of The Royal Society Working Group on Geoengineering,

I am writing on behalf of the ETC Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration). We are a non-profit international organization based in Canada that undertakes research and advocacy work. We monitor emerging technologies and corporate strategies relevant to the protection of biodiversity and the interests of marginalized groups. In January 2007 we published one of the first papers looking at geoengineering from a civil society perspective - entitled "Gambling with Gaia". We have since been monitoring developments in the field with increasing concern.[1] 

We are grateful that the Royal Society is willing to accept a submission at this late stage in its proceedings. We regard this submission as an urgent matter, for we are alarmed at the apparent emergence of an "official...   Read More







Categories: Geoengineering

LAST CALL FOR GEO-ENGINEERING SUBMISSIONS / PIE-IN-THE-SKY CONTEST DEADLINE: APRIL 1 2009

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ETC Group News
30 March 2009
www.etcgroup.org

LAST CALL FOR GEO-ENGINEERING SUBMISSIONS
PIE-IN-THE-SKY CONTEST DEADLINE:  APRIL 1 2009

There are just two days left to submit your very own wacky geo-engineering scheme to the first-ever international Pie-in-the-Sky contest sponsored by ETC Group, which closes this Wednesday, April 1. Contestants have their work cut out for them to surpass the outlandish schemes the real geo-engineers are concocting: sulfates in the atmosphere, mirrors in the sky, iron in the oceans, whiter clouds, fake trees. While preposterous, these schemes are being seriously debated by politicians, pundits and carbon-offsetters the world over and are poised to receive more research dollars and more air time in high-level international meetings. Practical, crucial measures – like reducing our dependence on fossil...   Read More








Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Geoengineering

The better world we seek is not Geo-engineered! A Civil Society Statement against Ocean Fertilization

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The better world we seek is

not Geo-engineered!

A Civil Society Statement against Ocean Fertilization

Since the World Social Forum last met in Nairobi in January 2007, civil society organizations from around the globe have confronted an alarming new threat to our rights and biodiversity: the threat of unjust and high risk geo-engineering schemes and specifically ocean fertilization. We are facing off against several...   Read More






Categories: Geoengineering

Shock and Thaw? Civil Society says “No” as geo-engineers mount shock bid to hack the planet.

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ETC Group
News Release
www.etcgroup.org
March 10, 2009

Shock and Thaw?

Civil Society says “No” as geo-engineers mount shock bid to hack the planet.
Railroading governments into geo-engineering will pit North against South, warn critics

OTTAWA, Canada –More than 80 civil society organizations (CSOs) from 20 countries are sending a sharp message to scientists meeting in Copenhagen today, by releasing a joint statement initiated at the World Social Forum in Belém, Brazil:  “The Better World we seek is not Geo-engineered.” The statement is being released as a small group of scientists, using a high-profile platform at a climate-science meeting in Copenhagen¹ , are ratcheting up pressure on governments to support...   Read More









Categories: Geoengineering

Geo-Engineering Contest Heats Up as April Fools' Day Approaches

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TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE

(and win a T-shirt)

Geo-Engineering Contest Heats Up as April Fools' Day Approaches

OTTAWA – March 4, 2009 – With less than a month left to enter ETC Group’s Pie-in-the-Sky contest, people from all over the world are sending in their outlandish ideas to re-engineer the planet so it (and we) can survive climate change.

Some professional geo-engineers have real designs in the works to manipulate the earth, sea and atmosphere on a large scale – to make carbon disappear, to keep sunlight from hitting the earth and, of course, to profit from the carbon market. They're a busy bunch: pleading their case in the press and at meetings of international environmental bodies; dumping iron particles from ships to “fertilize” the ocean; applying for monopoly patents on schemes to increase the...   Read More





Categories: Geoengineering

ETC Group Launches First-ever “PIE-IN-THE-SKY” Contest for Budding Geoengineers

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(Note: PDF2 above is the high-resolution poster file, spread it around!)

ETC Group
News Release
4 February 2009
www.etcgroup.org

ETC Group Launches First-ever “PIE-IN-THE-SKY” Contest for Budding Geoengineers

The first ever “Pie-in-the-Sky” contest for the wackiest geoengineering scheme to combat global warming is taking off just as controversial planetary techno-fixes are heating up. Since the beginning of the year, an Indo-German ship has launched itself into the Southern Ocean and dumped tonnes of iron sulphate overboard in a dubious attempt to drive CO2 to the ocean floor;[1] a madcap corporate venture is preparing to spread urea in the Tasman Sea for the same purpose;[2] a British university has issued a ratings list for different...   Read More










Categories: Geoengineering

LOHAFEX Update:Throwing precaution (and iron) to the wind (and waves)

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ETC Group
News Release
28 January 2009
www.etcgroup.org

LOHAFEX Update: Throwing precaution (and iron) to the wind (and waves)

ETC Group joined the chorus of voices, including the German Environment Ministry, expressing its deep regret at the decision of the German Minister of Research to re-authorize the controversial LOHAFEX ocean fertilization expedition. Researchers on board the German vessel RV Polarstern have now begun dumping 6 tons of iron sulphate over 300 square kilometers of open ocean in the Scotia Sea (east of Argentina) to artificially prompt the growth of a large plankton bloom. It will be one of the largest ocean fertilization experiments to date.

The LOHAFEX expedition had been temporarily suspended by German Research Minister, Annette Schavan, at the request of the German Environment Minister, following opposition by civil society groups and...   Read More









Categories: Geoengineering

LOHAFEX Update: Geo-engineering ship plows on as Environment Ministry calls for a halt

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ETC Group
News Release
January 13, 2009
www.etcgroup.org

LOHAFEX Update:
Geo-engineering ship plows on as Environment Ministry calls for a halt

Amid a growing storm of protest stretching across four continents, the Federal Environment Minister of Germany, Sigmar Gabriel, has reportedly called for the German research vessel, RV Polarstern, to halt its controversial ocean fertilization experiment.(1) However, the geo-engineers on board appear to be ignoring the Minister's call. Already at sea, they are heading full steam for their intended dumping site.

Last week, ETC Group and our allies in Germany, India and South Africa reported on an Indo-German research expedition, codenamed LOHAFEX, which was about to breach the global moratorium on ocean fertilisation established through the UN Convention on...   Read More











Categories: Biodiversity & Genetic Resources, Geoengineering