Mongolia seems like the last place on earth that should worry about global warming, but all the same the frigid northern country is already planning for the worst. In addition to crazy cold winters, it turns out that the capital city Ulan Bator also experiences scorcher summers that exact a tremendous energy load. To cut down on energy use and scale back the urban heat island effect, local geoengineering firm ECOS & EMI plans to create massive chunks of manmade ice, like the one seen above from BLDGBLOG, modeled after naturally-occuring naleds, which will be used to not only cool the city during the summer, but also provide fresh drinking water!

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Post tags: Climate Change, eco design, ECOS & EMI, geoengineering, global warming, green design, ice, ice chunk, mongolia, mongolia's capital, naleds, sustainable design, ulan bator, urban heat island effect

Earlier this year a group of thinkers around the world gathered at Chicheley Hall outside of London to talk about how to stop global climate change. Their almost universal conclusion was that, at this point, geoengineering is our only viable option. Now a group at Bristol University in the UK has embarked on an experiment — the first of its kind — to create a fake volcano that would help reflect the rays of the sun back into space and away from the Earth’s atmosphere.

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Post tags: bristol university, climate change experiment, climate experiment, geoengineering, global warming, spice experiment, stop climate change, stop global warming, Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering, university of bristol, volcano experiment, what is geoengineering

Britain’s national science academy, the Royal Society, recently organized a conference at Chicheley Hall — 40 miles north of London — where thinkers from around the world gathered to decide if, and how, the international community could implement geoengineering tactics to stop global climate change. If the international community fails to mitigate climate change with policy and infrastructure, we’re going to need to take some drastic measures to keep the planet inhabitable. The attendees at the conference decided that though the full consequences are unknown, the only real plan that would work would be to block out the sun.

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Post tags: block out the sun, climate change conference, climate change plan, climate change policy, geoengineering, global warming conversations, global warming policy, how to stop climate change, how to stop global warming, international climate change issues

Environmentalists have long argued about whether geoengineering (using technology to alter the climate) is a good way to tackle climate change. But the tactic has some heavy hitters on its side, including Bill Gates. The Microsoft founder recently announced plans to invest $300,000 into research at the University of Calgary for unique solutions and responses to climate change. Part of that research included lab tests on machines that suck up seawater and spray it into the air, seeding white clouds that reflect rays of sunlight away from Earth.

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Post tags: bill gates, Climate Change, geoengineering, global warming, green design, silver lining, sustainable design

A Harvard physicist recently proposed an interesting way to cool the earth — brighten the sea. Russell Seitz wants to pump bursts of tiny bubbles into the ocean. Seitz reasons that because bubbles increase water’s reflectivity, injecting tons of extra bubbles into the sea will lower water temperatures and help cool the planet. It may sound totally crazy, but Seitz says he has research to back up the idea.

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Post tags: albedo, bubbles cool planet, bubbles in the sea, geoengineering, harvard, harvard physicists, lowering water temperatures, microbubbles, ocean reflectivity, parts per million, Russell Seitz, undershine

Back in 1979, Winooski, Vermont, a town that often experiences -20 degree weather in January, proposed building a giant dome over their city to help reduce energy costs and keep warm throughout the winter. Thirty years ago, we were experiencing an energy crisis with rising oil prices, and people were looking for solutions to reduce their costs. Nowadays, while we’re also looking to reduce our carbon footprint in addition to costs, the concept is still applicable. By doming off the small city of 7,000, Winooski could stay warm all year round, reduce energy costs and emissions, grow food all year, and ban cars inside the dome. Environmentally, it seems like it has potential.

What do you think?

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Post tags: carbon emissions, city dome, dome, geoengineering, reduce emissions, reduce energy costs, vermont, winooski