Geoengineering: a tool for reducing the impacts of climate: possible ideas for solar geoengineering, their pros and cons and uncertainties.
The talk will introduce Geoengineering, the methods of altering the climate other than by reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases. Alistair Duffey will briefly cover the broader context of the climate change problem, our current and projected warming levels, and the idea of ‘overshoot’ past the Paris targets and introduce the ideas of negative emissions and solar geoengineering.
The core of the talk will be an overview of what we know so far, and what we don’t know, about the potential for solar geoengineering to be a useful tool in reducing the impacts of climate change. This will include an overview of the ideas that have been suggested and their plausibility, advantages and disadvantages, and a deeper dive into the expected physical climate response to stratospheric aerosol injection, as the leading contender. Alistair will also discuss some of the key uncertainties and areas of current research.
Alistair Duffey is a PhD candidate at University College London working on the physical climate response to stratospheric aerosol injection as a method of climate intervention. His work uses computer simulations to understand changes in large-scale atmospheric dynamics under this kind of intervention and how these relate to change in the polar regions. He has a master’s degree in physics from the University of Oxford. Before starting a PhD he spent 2 years working on the decarbonisation of housing in the UK.
Please book, free of charge, by 1pm on the day of the event. You will receive a zoom link on the afternoon of the event.
Alternatively, please come along to the Victoria Hall at HLSI, Highgate.
Doors open 7.30pm for 8pm start.
Free to all.