A fascinating examination of the hazards and rewards of geoengineering, as well as our prospects in a warming planet. Global warming poses a serious and perhaps catastrophic threat. Going without fossil fuels is a difficult, if not impossible, task. As a result, we must reassess our options for dealing with the problem as soon as possible. A small but increasing group of scientists is studying possibilities for purposeful human engagement in the climate system, such as a stratospheric curtain to block the sun, photosynthetic plankton farming, and fleets of unmanned spacecraft seeding the clouds, to meet this demand. As Oliver Morton argues in this visionary book, it would be as irresponsible to reject geoengineering technologies as it would be foolish to embrace them as a simple solution to the problem.
The Planet Remade goes into the history, politics, and cutting-edge science of geoengineering. Morton explores the advantages and disadvantages of these dividing approaches in the broadest sense conceivable. Clouds and soils, winds and seas, and the huge nitrogen and carbon cycles have all been affected by changes to the planet during the last century that most of us are unaware of. Understanding such transitions enlightens not just the extent of what has to be done to counteract global warming, but also our relationship with nature.
Climate change isn't only one of the twenty-first century's most important political concerns. Morton deconstructs the consequences of our inability to confront climate change and reintroduces the prospect of success. He faces the profound fear that comes with seeing humans as a force of nature, and ponders what it could mean to try to harness that energy for good, as well as what it might demand of us.
Crookes was talking about fixing a couple of million tonnes of nitrogen a year to assure Europe’s wheat supplies for the foreseeable future. Today industry fixes over a hundred million tonnes a year, comfortably more than all the Earth’s nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria put together.
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