How to cool the planet and save coral reefs by the end of the 21st Century Event

This presentation will report recent global carbon cycle modelling work investigating artificial enhancement of the chemical weathering sink for CO2 as a macro-engineering strategy for offsetting anthropogenic C-emissions. Increased land-ocean alkalinity fluxes and lower CO2 could substantially reverse end-of-century anthropogenic ocean acidification, even under a ‘business-as-usual’ carbon emissions scenario, helping maintain the viability of tropical coral reefs. Enhanced weathering may offer a scalable climate change mitigation option but major issues of cost and social acceptability should encourage urgent efforts to phase-down fossil fuel emissions.