Obama science advisor advocates climate engineering

April 8, 11:01 AMDenver Weather ExaminerTony Hake

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John Holdren as director of the Office of Science
and Technology Policy is President Obama's
science advisor.

In an interview with the Associated Press, John Holdren, President Obama’s newly confirmed science advisor, discussed the possibility of ‘climate engineering’ to battle global warming.  The radical and somewhat controversial technology would require an extraordinary intervention by man in an attempt to purposely influence the climate.

Mr. Holdren feels however the dangers of climate change could leave Earth with little choice.  He is quoted as saying, “It's got to be looked at.  We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."

Climate engineering, or geoengineering, could theoretically be accomplished a number of ways.  Most currently studied techniques revolve around attempts to counteract greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide, which is believe to be responsible for global warming.  Technology to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere called ‘air scrubbing’ is one alternative the administration is supposedly considering.  Another extreme option would be to purposely inject pollution into the atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays. 

Prior to his nomination, Holdren was a physicist and professor at Harvard.  He has long sounded the alarm of manmade climate change saying global warming is like being "in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog." 

Over his career he has made a number of little-known controversial comments that those that disagree with the manmade climate change theory believe should have been vetted during his nomination. 

In the late 1960s Holdren warned that population controls needed to be implemented immediate and said that “some form of ecocatastrophe” would befall the planet.  He has further recommended the “de-development” of modern industrialized countries in order to assist underdeveloped nations.  In 2006 he said he believed global sea levels could rise 13 feet by the end of the century, far above the 13 inches the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said.

While some scientists see promise in geoengineering, many caution that extreme care must be taken in the use of such technologies for fear of causing greater harm to the environment.