winds from having significantly larger
proportions of retired people and older
people relative to working age citizens
another example is the array of
Technologies often referred to
collectively as geoengineering that
potentially could help reverse the
warming effects of global climate change
one that has gained my personal
attention is stratospheric aerosol
injection or Sai
a method of seeding the stratosphere
with particles that can help reflect the
sun's heat in much the same way that
volcanic eruptions do
an Sai program could limit Global
temperature increases reducing some
risks associated with higher
temperatures and providing the world
economy additional time to transition
from fossil fuels
this process is also relatively
inexpensive the national resource
research Council estimates that a fully
deployed Sai program would cost about 10
billion dollars yearly
as promising as it may be moving forward
on Sai would also raise a number of
challenges for our government and for
the International Community
on the technical side greenhouse gas
emission reductions would still have to
accompany Sai to address other climate
change effects such as ocean
acidification because Sai alone would
not remove greenhouse gases from the
atmosphere
on the geopolitical side the
Technology's potential to alter weather
patterns and benefit certain regions of
the world at the expense of other
regions could trigger sharp opposition
by some Nations
others might seize on sai's benefits and
back away from their commitment to
carbon dioxide reductions
and as with other breakthrough
Technologies Global norms and standards
are lacking to guide the deployment and
implementation of Sai and other
geoengineering initiatives
now I could go on and on and on and on
about the things that fascinate me but
rather than talk about them I thought
I'd stop here and start the conversation
with Judy and then I can take some of