Geoengineering experts last week gathered to assess proposals for manipulating the earth to avoid climate disaster. The meeting was convened by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and was closed to the public. The panel stressed that it is not planning to make any recommendations about actions the world should take, but was merely assessing whether the proposals are sound science. Technological options evaluated by the group included spraying the atmosphere with aerosols; changing the color of clouds, and “fertilizing” oceans with iron particles to increase their absorption of carbon dioxide. Environmental and human rights organizations from 40 countries sent an open letter to the group protesting the use of geoengineering to change the climate. The IPCC argued that they were taking into account all the possible impacts of geoengineering technologies. Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of an IPCC working group, said, “We realised that there is no single option, nor is there a magic recipe, and all actions must be assessed to make better decisions.”
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/ipcc-assesses-geoengineering-proposals.html