Considerations for climate intervention research

Abstract:

Action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions is essential for addressing rapid environmental change in the Earth’s polar regions. However, the potential for threshold crossing events in polar climate elements with untenable consequences for society and ecosystems may motivate consideration of additional “climate interventions”. A recent National Research Council study identified risks and research needs associated with global scale intervention options such as atmospheric carbon removal and albedo modification. In addition to the issues raised by the NRC panel, any serious study of climate interventions would likely transcend the traditional scope of earth system science. Current observational systems are not designed to detect, attribute or monitor climate intervention attempts and would warrant significant augmentation. Potential field experiments to improve scientific understanding of albedo modification options would likely span a huge range of physical scales, material and energy (some in-family with established atmospheric research but others that would be wholly unprecedented). Targeted interventions focused on polar climate elements have received even less study than global-scale intervention and their consideration could present unique challenges. Finally, research priorities have not yet been informed by any strategy or scenarios about where and when climate interventions might fit in society’s portfolio of climate responses.