Geoengineering Biodiversity: Study to Access Feasibility of Geoengineering Techniques on Biodiversity

Abstract

As Earth continues to experience increased global warming, biological species on Earth are pushed to constantly modify and adapt to the changing Earth’s climate in order to survive. This environmental pressure might push some of the more fragile species toward the brink of extinction thus human interventions are deemed necessary to minimize the current and future impacts of climate change. Current interventions include mitigation through international policies and regional laws by reducing anthropogenic outputs into Earth’s climate system as well as conservation efforts to slow down extinction rate. In this paper, we will discuss how geoengineering can be added into one of these human interventions to reduce impacts of climate change on Earth’s biodiversity.  Geoengineering might provide immediate and simple solutions to current climate problems, however, only few researches have been conducted to study impacts and feasibility of geoengineering on life on Earth. Discussion on the feasibility and impacts of geoengineering on biodiversity will be assessed for two main techniques of geoengineering; carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM). From these two techniques, afforestation, which is one of CDR methods was selected as this method provide viable and sustainable form of geoengineering towards biodiversity.