Planetary engineering is the application of technology for the purpose of influencing the global properties of a planet.[1] The goal of this theoretical task is usually to make other worlds habitable for life.
Perhaps the best-known type of planetary engineering is terraforming, by which a planet's surface conditions are altered to be more like those of Earth. Other types of planetary engineering include ecopoiesis, the introduction of an ecology to a lifeless environment. Planetary engineering is largely the realm of science fiction at present, although some types of climate change on Earth are recent evidence that humans can cause change on a global scale.
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Terraforming
Terraforming is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to those of Earth in order to make it habitable by humans.
Geoengineering
Geoengineering is the application of planetary engineering techniques to Earth. Recent geoengineering proposals have principally been methods to tackle human-induced climate change by either removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (e.g. using ocean iron fertilisation) or by managing solar radiation (e.g. by using mirrors in space) in order to negate the net warming effect of climate change.
See also
- Macro-engineering
- Megascale engineering
- Virgin Earth Challenge
- Rendezvous with Rama
- Applied planetology
External links
- Geoengineering: A Climate Change Manhattan Project (Stanford Envtl. Law Journal
- Geoengineering Retrospective Overview of articles on geoengineering from the sustainability site Worldchanging
- Geo-engineering blogspot; website describing all current methods/proposals done to revert climate change by geo-engineering
- 5 ways to save the earth; documentairy about geo-engineering
- Caldeira labat the Carnegie Institution for Science
- ClimateShield - Lifeboat Foundation ClimateShield
- Guns and sunshades to rescue climate BBC News
- Climate Engineering Is Doable, as Long as We Never Stop Wired Magazine
- Morton, Oliver (10 May 2007). "Climate change: Is this what it takes to save the world?". Nature 447: 132–136. doi:.
- 10 Ideas That Are Changing The World: 6.Geoengineering Time Magazine
References
- ^ Fogg, Martyn J. (1995). Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments. Warrendale, PA: SAE International.
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