Climatron: Personal Blog of Kyle Vandercamp

Asilomar 2010 Statement

The ASILOMAR 2010 Conference has wrapped and the Organising Committee’s Statement is out there:

Participants reaffirmed that the risks posed by climate change require a strong commitment
to mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, adaptation to unavoidable climate change, and
development of low-carbon energy sources independent of whether climate intervention
methods ultimately prove to be safe and feasible.

For me, this is like finding out that a person can pull the trigger. As someone involved in pure research, it’s a game changer… Still, they still have to be taken seriously…

I was surprised to find myself watching a series of ads all in a row last night – all trying to rally the public to make a change and in so doing help avert climate change.

The consistency of tone, one after the other, made me realise how offensive this form of messaging can be. From the so-called denialists and skeptics through to the millions and billions of people who know or care less when it comes to climate change, all can still be repulsed by the style and messages herein. I suppose this is advertising at its worst – trying to sell doom and gloom – whenever that happens bad ideas and corny executions follow.

Propaganda can sell hearts and minds when the message is a synthetic dopamine or a decisive cure for hangovers. But try selling solutions to famine, drought, poverty, catastrophic climate change, which all involve a change in mass psychology and it all falls apart!

Here are some impotent examples:

We still know too little about the nuances of geophysical systems to be confident in our ability to engineer changes without risking disaster. This alone is enough to make some otherwise technology-friendly environmentalists reject the notion of geoengineering out of hand.

Jamais Cascio has been writing about geoengineering for several years. Here’s a good introduction.

Jamais Cascio

Just watched Bill Gates at TED2010, calling for “Energy Miracles” to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to zero! I’m so impressed by this speech. For me, it’s easier to be excited than cynical when you see someone of his caliber get seriously involved in the debate. Watch it for yourself and see what I mean.

Of course, at the same time, it’s such a provocation, we’ll just have to wait to see what it actually means. Go Bill!