On Wednesday, Romney released a web video highlighting the ad Gingrich made in 2008 with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling for action on global warming.
Oh, how times have changed. Gingrich has since backed away from asserting that manmade global warming is real. But just three years ago, he was promoting a process known as geo-engineering to combat it.
“Geo-engineering holds forth the promise of addressing global warming concerns for just a few billion dollars a year,” Gingrich said in 2008, according to Think Progress.
An article published in Scientific American in November 2010 reported sharp divisions in the scientific community on geo-engineering, which could include measures such as dumping iron dust into the sea to encourage algal blooms that absorb carbon dioxide.
“A last-ditch remedy for an ailing planet, or a reckless scheme that could be a greater threat to life on Earth than the problem it aims to solve?” wrote author Jeff Tollefson. “Opinions are sharply divided on geo-engineering – potential massive interventions in the global climate system, intended to forestall the worst effects of climate change.”
So far, caution rules. Last year, participants in the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a moratorium on geo-engineering "until there is an adequate scientific basis on which to justify such activities and appropriate consideration of the associated risk,” Mr. Tollefson wrote.
