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Saturday, 06 March 2010 20:23

Glossary

Geo-engineering

Also Climate Intervention or Climate Engineering

These terms are bandied about considerably and often used interchangeably, resulting in substantial confusion in the exchange of ideas concerning the investigation into and efforts to address the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions on the climate. Several groups have suggested use of the terms ‘climate intervention’ or 'climate engineering' to distinguish this activity from large scale civil engineering projects which have classically been called geoengineering.

The American Meteorological Society (AMS), in their Policy Statement on Geoengineering, defines geoengineering as large-scale efforts to deliberately manipulate physical, chemical, or biological aspects of the climate system. In the particular context of their report, geoengineering is intended to counteract the consequences of increasing greenhouse gas emissions. This definition is similar to that used by the Royal Society (UK) in their report Geoengineering the Climate.

The CRF stresses that these techniques are but one potential component in a comprehensive approach to strategy development and risk assessment in the effort to slow climate change and its impact on society.