Modelling the marine impacts of proposed methods to prevent climate change or mitigate its effects

• Main Authors: Keller, David, Reith, Fabian, Feng, Yuming, Oschlies, Andreas
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/26360/

In attempts to prevent climate change or mitigate its effects humans may decide to either use the ocean to store captured carbon or impact it through geoengineering. Although these are controversial topics, many methods have been proposed and even patented without a proper evaluation of their effectiveness or side effects. We use an Earth system model to investigate how 5 different climate engineering methods, the direct injection of CO2 into the deep sea, and the regional addition of alkalizing agents to prevent ocean acidification in coral reef regions will affect the oceans during high CO2 emission scenario simulations. We demonstrate how these natural-human system interactions can be simulated in an idealized manner with an Earth System model. Our results identify not only the effectiveness and risks of the methods, but also some of the related economic, political, and societal issues that need further study and incorporation into models.