COOL EARTH CORE : MASTER GLOBAL ESSAY

 

IN 1992 - Dr. David Keith published an academic paper, '' A Serious Look at Geoengineering,'' that raised the questions that would shape his career : Who should authorize the use of these technologies? Who is liable if something goes wrong?

His academic career took him from Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, to the University of Calgary, in Alberta, where he began investigating ways to capture and store carbon dioxide.

The next stop was Harvard, where he got serious about solar geoengineering.

In 2006, a mutual acquaintance introduced him to Mr. Gates, who wanted to learn more about technologies that might help fight global  warming.  The two men discussed climate and technology in a series of meetings over the next 10 years.

Then in 2009, Dr. Keith founded Carbon Engineering, a company that developed a process for pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Investors included Mr. Gates, Chevron and N Murray Edwards, who made billions pumping oil from the Canadian oil sands.

Last year Carbon Engineering was acquired by  Occidental Petroleum, a major oil and gas producer based in Texas, for $1.1 billion. Dr. Keith owned about 4 percent of the company at the time of the sale, delivering him a personal downfall of about $72 million.

Occidental is now building a series of enormous carbon capture plants. It plans to sell carbon credits to big companies like Amazon and AT&T that want to offset their emissions.

Critics say that will only delay the phase out of fossil fuels while allowing an oil company to profit.

'' Of course I'm uncomfortable about it being sold to an oil company, no question,'' Dr. Keith said, adding that he plans to give away most of his profits from the sale of Carbon Engineering, perhaps to a conservation group.

But once solar engineering began to cool the planet, stopping the effort abruptly could result in a sudden rise in temperatures, a phenomenon known as '' termination shock. ''

The planet could experience '' potentially massive temperature rise in an unprepared world over a matter of five to 10 years, hitting the Earth's climate with something that it probably hasn't seen the dinosaur-killing impactor,'' Dr. Pierrehumbert said.

On top of all this, there are fears that rogue actors could use solar geoengineering and concerns that the technology could be weaponized. Not to mention the fact that sulfur dioxide can harm human health.

'' A Really Dangerous Path.''

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times.