Geoengineering means changing the Earth's fundamental large-scale processes. Graciela Chichilnisky More Quotes by Graciela Chichilnisky More Quotes From Graciela Chichilnisky As difficult as it is to eliminate the risk of nuclear warfare, it requires fewer changes to the global economy than does averting or reversing climate change. Graciela Chichilnisky climateriskdoe Climate change is due to the use of energy for industrial growth, which has been and is overwhelmingly based on fossil fuels. Graciela Chichilnisky climategrowthenergy Changing an economic system that is bent on uncontrolled and poorly measured economic growth and depends on fossil energy for its main objectives, is much more difficult than changing how nuclear energy is used for military purposes. Some think it may be impossible. Graciela Chichilnisky growthmilitarythinking We are still learning how exactly the Earth reacts to increased CO2 and other greenhouse gases. We know it leads to warming seas which are melting the North and the South Poles, rising and starting to swallow entire coastal areas in the US and elsewhere, as the New York Times article documents. Graciela Chichilnisky risingnew-yorksea We know that the warming rising seas will swallow entire island nations that are about 25 percent of the UN vote and perhaps at the end, even our civilization. This realization is traumatic and the first reaction to trauma is denial. Since there is some remaining scientific uncertainty, a natural response is to deny that change is occurring. This is natural but it is very dangerous. Graciela Chichilnisky seaislandscivilization The change in economic values created by the new markets for global public goods will reorient our global economy and under the right conditions can usher the satisfaction of basic needs of the present and of the future. This is what is needed right now. Graciela Chichilnisky economic-valuesatisfactionneeds Carbon negative power plants can provide energy while they overcome poverty and change economic values in the right direction. Graciela Chichilnisky economic-valuepovertyovercoming CO2 from air can replace petroleum: it can produce plastics and acetate, it can produce carbon fibers that replace metals and clean hydrocarbons, such as synthetic gasoline. We can use CO2 to desalinate water, enhance the production of vegetables and fruit in greenhouses, carbonate our beverages and produce biofertilizers that enhance the productivity of the soil without poisoning it. Carbon negative technology is absolutely needed now. Graciela Chichilnisky technologyvegetablesair We have to remove the CO2 that the industrial economy has already emitted, which otherwise will remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and alter the Earth's climate irreversibly. It is possible to do this. Graciela Chichilnisky atmosphereearthyears Changing the world's oceans to increase their uptake of CO2, as other geoengineering solutions propose, is equally dangerous, as the increased resulting acidity of the oceans kills tiny crustaceans, such as krill, that are the basis of the pyramid of life on the planet as we know it. Graciela Chichilnisky tinyoceanpyramids The sun is the source of all energy on planet Earth and we cannot experiment with our only energy source. Graciela Chichilnisky energyearthsun We know little of the consequences of the geoengineering process, such as spraying particles into the atmosphere that shade the planet from the sun's rays and could decrease its temperature. But this process is how dinosaurs disappeared from the Earth about 60 million years ago, by particles spewed by a volcano or a giant meteorite impact, and our species could follow suit. Graciela Chichilnisky volcanoesimpactyears
