Marine Geoengineering Workshop

The workshop will be held in the Martin Johnson House on the campus of Scripps Institution of Oceanography on Thursday, October 1 and Friday, October 2, 2020. Thursday will consist of a morning briefing, followed by an afternoon of academic collaboration and a sunset reception. Friday will again be a full day with the primary emphasis on academic collaboration.

A draft agenda is here.

This workshop will focus on reducing uncertainty about marine geoengineering approaches through an interdisciplinary research agenda. While the idea of climate geoengineering, or the deliberate intervention in the Earth system to counteract some impacts of global warming, has received increased attention in the past several years, marine geoengineering proposals (that is, those that are ocean-based) have received relatively less attention (Nature 553, 27; 2018). We are convening a workshop at Scripps Institution of Oceanography to further collaborative research related to the engineering, impacts, economics and governance of marine geoengineering technologies, with particular emphasis on coastal California. We will discuss the research to-date and uncertainties surrounding three illustrative marine geoengineering approaches:

• enhanced ocean alkalinity
• artificial upwelling
• marine cloud brightening

The primary goal will be to lay out an interdisciplinary research agenda to reduce uncertainty for informed future decision making around these technologies.

• Enhanced ocean alkalinity - “adding additional chemical base (alkalinity) to seawater can be useful in helping: (i) decrease surface water partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) thereby increasing CO2 uptake by the ocean, (ii) counter seawater acidity such as that generated by excess CO2, and/or (iii) provide a vast and relatively stable storage medium for anthropogenic CO2 in the form of mineral bicarbonate and carbonate ions (alkalinity) in seawater” (GESAMP, 2019).
• Artificial upwelling – aims to technically force deep nutrient-rich waters to the surface in order to stimulate phytoplankton growth and draw down carbon dioxide. It has also been proposed to (i) enhance fish production and cool coral reefs, (ii) cool the ocean’s surface and local overlying air, and (iii) possibly, weaken hurricanes (GESAMP, 2019).
• Marine cloud brightening (MCB) - “The idea behind the MCB technique is that seeding marine stratocumulus clouds with sub-micrometre sea water particles might significantly enhance the cloud albedo through the formation of more of these water droplets, making the clouds denser and therefore more reflective. It might also possibly enhance the longevity of the clouds” (GESAMP, 2019).

Organizers:

Kate Ricke

Drew Lucas

Confirmed Participants:

Margaret Leinen

Lynn Russell

Jeffrey Severinghaus

Peter Franks

David Victor

Daniel Callies

Corey Gabriel

Email, geoengineering2020@ucsd.edu

MAS Fellow Morgan Block, mblock@ucsd.edu

Kate Ricke, kricke@ucsd.edu

Drew Lucas, ajlucas@ucsd.edu