Geoengineering support moving ahead...cautiously

The title link is to an AP article about geoengineering, and why it is receiving more support, including research funding. Following are some quotes from the article:

"The taboo is broken," Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric scientist, told The Associated Press.

Whatever the doubts, "we are amazingly farther up the road on geoengineering," Crutzen, who wrote a 2006 scientific article that sparked interest in geoengineering, said by telephone from Germany.

In September, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended in a 70-page report that the White House "establish a clear strategy for geoengineering research" within its science office.

Perhaps most significantly, the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, the global authority on climate science, agreed in October to take on geoengineering in its next assessment report. Its hundreds of scientists will begin with a session next spring."

Forest Preservation, a big step forward.....REDD Plus

Forrest Dweller, Papua New Guinea

Oslo, Norway: $4 Billion has been pledged by wealthy nations to assist poor nations in preserving their forests. What is so encouraging about this step, is that wildlife will definitely benefit, regardless of how much impact it has on global warming.

As with most aid programs, the real difficulty will come with implementation, with making sure the funds are really effective in reducing forest destruction. "An agency monitoring the aid will be up and running before U.N. climate talks start in Cancun, Mexico, later this year...

The new monitoring agency would oversee individual agreements between countries to fight deforestation and educate local populations who live off forests — estimated at more than 1 billion worldwide — to do so in a sustainable way."

REDD Plus =  Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (title link is now UN-REDD)