Climate Crisis: Are we doing enough?

[Psamathe]

Meanwhile, as Ms Reeves scrapes around searching for savings, likely cutting benefits from disabled already struggling, UK Gov is putting millions into dangerous and stupid climate engineering through a fringe body setup by Cummings when he ruled the UK with little or no scrutiny or oversight (Aria) which Labour have chosen to continue funding.

Ian

 

[Beebo]

Wow. Welsh wild fires in March.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8rk2n7lzyvo

 

[First Aspect]

Meanwhile, as Ms Reeves scrapes around searching for savings, likely cutting benefits from disabled already struggling, UK Gov is putting millions into dangerous and stupid climate engineering through a fringe body setup by Cummings when he ruled the UK with little or no scrutiny or oversight (Aria) which Labour have chosen to continue funding.

Ian

What's you problem with it? Looks like the annual budget is about £250M. Innovate UK's is about £1.2Bn.

Aria's remit seems to be high risk high rewards, so you'd expect to have to kiss a lot of frogs.

Also not specifically climate related research.

 

[Psamathe]

What's you problem with it? Looks like the annual budget is about £250M. Innovate UK's is about £1.2Bn.

Aria's remit seems to be high risk high rewards, so you'd expect to have to kiss a lot of frogs.

Also not specifically climate related research.

Climate engineering is very high risk and no solution to the climate crisis. UK is very short of money. £1.25 bn is a lot eg when making what is reported to be significant cuts to those with disabilities, cutting winter fuel allowance from some already in fuel poverty.

Ian

 

[First Aspect]

Innovate UK funding is all about stimulating the economy, funding R&D with direct industrial applicability. Aria is more about moonshot stuff as far as I can see.

I'm not sure what you've latched onto when you talk about climate engineering, but the term encompasses CCS which is pretty benign, and some other more questionable things like seeding the atmosphere or inducing oceanic plankton blooms. In it's broadest sense, it could encompass reforestation as well.

Post a link to what has bothered you.

 

[dutchguylivingintheuk]

Innovate UK funding is all about stimulating the economy, funding R&D with direct industrial applicability. Aria is more about moonshot stuff as far as I can see.

Yes that might be the goal, the point however was that it is a cummings lead body that is not very transparent, therefore i agree with @Psamathe that 1.2 billion is a bit much if you at the same time cut money away from disabled benefits and other benefits.
If you're still gonna spend 1.2 billion on ''innovation'' (which in my book is often a other word for ''lets hire 3001 consultans to come to the conclusion that we can use tablet instead off pen and paper so those same consultants get a nice bonus on subsequent Apple orders..'' ) the first step should be to invest in something that is transparent. plain and simple.

 

[Psamathe]

Innovate UK funding is all about stimulating the economy, funding R&D with direct industrial applicability. Aria is more about moonshot stuff as far as I can see.

I'm not sure what you've latched onto when you talk about climate engineering, but the term encompasses CCS which is pretty benign, and some other more questionable things like seeding the atmosphere or inducing oceanic plankton blooms. In it's broadest sense, it could encompass reforestation as well.

Post a link to what has bothered you.

My concerns are in relation to $58 m going to solar geoengineering (pollutants being distributed in the upper atmosphere to increase the Earth's albedo. Money from UK Aria.

Unrelated to those concerns I an not in favour of carbon capture schemes for power generation. We need to solve the issues not try and side step them with uncertain technology.

Ian

 

[First Aspect]

Aria seems to be about £250M a year.

Innovate UKs budget is comparatively peanuts, and the idea is to make more than it spends for the UK. The UK university sector by comparison costs us about £50Bn each year.

It would be very shortsighted to substantially cut either.

Anyhow, back to the not specifically climate focussed relatively small scale funding body Aria...

 

[First Aspect]

My concerns are in relation to $58 m going to solar geoengineering (pollutants being distributed in the upper atmosphere to increase the Earth's albedo. Money from UK Aria.

Unrelated to those concerns I an not in favour of carbon capture schemes for power generation. We need to solve the issues not try and side step them with uncertain technology.

Ian

No one is proposing to put pollutants into the atmosphere. The general idea is to scatter light, for which any suitably sized particulate will do. It's no more dangerous than the effects of a volcano on global temperatures.

CCS is not an excuse to continue to use fossil fuels, but instead the idea is to ameliorate the effects of what's inevitably going to happen. Tbh I don't think it's going to amount to much more than smallish scale virtue signalling.

 

[dutchguylivingintheuk]

CCS is not an excuse to continue to use fossil fuels, but instead the idea is to ameliorate the effects of what's inevitably going to happen. Tbh I don't think it's going to amount to much more than smallish scale virtue signalling.

Yeh so the same as all those companys that buy into those ''offset schemes'' which in fact are scams. intended or not

 

[First Aspect]

Yeh so the same as all those companys that buy into those ''offset schemes'' which in fact are scams. intended or not

That has nothing to do with CCS. It's actually very interesting technology, or technologies, just a piss in the ocean.

 

[monkers]

There's a certain factor that is shared between this and other threads and also between letters of warning.

Widely held opinions about unnamed billionaires such like Trump, Musk & co, global corporates, pollution and climate change were all warned about in letters - letters written by Bin Laden. How's that for an uncomfortable truth?

And before any twisters try to think to post that means I support terrorism as appropriate action, think again.

 

[Psamathe]

Aria seems to be about £250M a year.

My impression is £800 m over a few years/indeterminate time. Not seen any annual figures.

But solar geoengineering seems complete madness. We (the world) need to move to net zero fast, probably net negative not try and search out dangerous bodges to carry on with carbon business as usual.

Ian

 

[First Aspect]

My impression is £800 m over a few years/indeterminate time. Not seen any annual figures.

But solar geoengineering seems complete madness. We (the world) need to move to net zero fast, probably net negative not try and search out dangerous bodges to carry on with carbon business as usual.

Ian

Bill Gates is a fan of it. I would need to know more. The risk would seem to relate to it's permanence or otherwise.

 

[First Aspect]

Google suggests £260M this year for Aria. Might be a total spend and when it's gone it's gone. Dunno.