(Test 1234) Compton Lecture Series: An Intro to Climate Systems Engineering

Summary: 
David Keith introduces the series, outlining the four dimensions of climate action: decarbonization, carbon removal, sunlight reflection, and adaptation; the four tools that can weaken the causal chain that stretches from economic activity to the impacts of climate change on humans and nature.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction
04:05 Series overview
08:41 Global emissions
11:56 Quiz 1
13:26 The first law of climate change
15:43 Quiz 1 answer
16:40 Stopping emissions
18:04 Climate problem causal chain
24:14 Decarbonization
29:35 Carbon removal
32:39 SRM and CDR
34:13 Quiz 2
35:20 Decarbonization: Is it hopeless?
41:33 Adaptation
43:20 Climate is a 4D problem
46:44 What is climate systems engineering?
54:45 Q&A

• Climate Policy Enters Four Dimensions – By David Keith and John Deutch | The Aspen Institute Economic Strategy Group | 2020
  • This non-technical overview addresses what needs to be done to craft a politically stable and economically sound climate policy that includes balanced reliance on the four mechanisms to manage climate risks, which we call the climate control mechanisms: emissions reduction, adaptation, carbon dioxide removal, and solar radiation modification.
• Optimal climate policy in 3D: mitigation, carbon removal, and solar geoengineering – By Mariia Belaia, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz, and David Keith | Climate Change Economics | 2021
  • A technical economics paper that shows how SRM, CDR, and emissions cuts might work together.

Summary: 
David Archer introduces the carbon cycle and natural geochemical processes as a basis for explaining how humans might intervene in these cycles to deliberately remove carbon, reversing the accumulation of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction
01:45 Biosphere and waste management
06:07 The battery of the biosphere
07:33 The Haber-Bosch process
08:19 What happens when CO2 is released into the atmosphere?
12:16 A carbon cycle thermostat
16:47 The Faint Young Sun Paradox
17:19 Natural variations in Earth’s climate
18:34 A global warming analog event
20:14 Glacial/interglacial cycles
22:34 The long tail of fossil fuel CO2
24:23 Ice sheet model results
27:33 Sea level rise and temperature
29:01 Where the fossil fuel carbon is now
34:04 Cleaning CO2 from the atmosphere
42:14 Taking out the CO2 garbage
45:59 Q&A

Summary: 
Tiffany Shaw explains the scientific basis for predicting how the climate changes in response to emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosol pollution and examines what climate models can and cannot tell us about what to expect.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction
02:07 Predicting the future of climate
04:20 The climate model work of Syukuro Manabe
27:41 The Progression of climate models
31:31 Observed global warming
34:16 Testing the limits of climate prediction in real time
37:20 Climate model successes and shortcomings
45:37 Regional discrepancies in climate models
57:28 Q&A

• The other climate crisis – By Tiffany A. Shaw and and Bjorn Stevens | Nature | 2025
• How Climate Scientists Saw the Future Before It Arrived – By Zack Savitsky | Quanta Magazine | 2025
• What We Know about Climate Change – By Kerry Emanuel | MIT Press | 2018

Summary: 
B. B. Cael details approaches to carbon removal, including ocean alkalinity enhancement, land-based methods, bioenergy with carbon capture, and direct air capture with storage.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction
01:46 Overview of carbon removal methods
04:18 Basic questions about carbon removal
18:13 Soil carbon storage
22:41 Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS)
25:42 Biochar
28:30 Direct air capture (DAC)
29:19 Enhanced rock weathering (ERW)
36:17 Iron fertilization
44:17 Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE)
51:27 Electrochemical ocean carbon capture
54:51 Opinionated summary
58:28 Q&A

• Atmospheric carbon dioxide removal: A physical science perspective – By Washington Taylor, Brad Marston, Robert Rosner, and Jonathan Wurtele | American Physical Society | 2025
• Carbon Removal – By Howard Herzog and Niall Mac Dowell | The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series | 2025

Summary: 
David Keith provides an overview of sunlight reflection methods (SRM), the history of SRM, and why stratospheric aerosols like sulfur are central to climate systems engineering approaches.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction and overview
02:09 Reflecting sunlight
06:05 Why aerosol? Why stratosphere? Why sulfur?
28:13 Engineering
40:24 Comparing SRM methods
46:12 Climate response
52:43 Concerns
55:20 Q&A

• Solar Geoengineering: History, Methods, Governance, Prospects – By Edward Parson and David Keith | Annual Review of Environment and Resource | 2024
• Solar geoengineering could start soon if it starts small – By David Keith and Wake Smith | MIT Technology Review | 2024

Summary: 
Doug MacAyeal discusses the science of glaciers and introduces interventions to prevent glacial melt. David Keith recounts his experience developing technologies for direct air capture at Carbon Engineering, and draws critical lessons about the role of cleantech start-up companies in developing climate-tech.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction and overview
01:22 Ice loss and sea-level change
03:33 Three basic types of ice mass
07:00 Where is glacial ice likely to cause sea-level rise?
09:25 How does glacial melting lead to sea-level rise?
14:15 Glacial geoengineering responses to sea-level rise
26:23 How to make research progress on glacial geoengineering
28:56 Ethics and politics of glacial geoengineering
31:39 Carbon Engineering overview
36:51 Direct air capture (DAC)
50:10 Lessons learned from Carbon Engineering and DAC
58:50 Commercial SRM in the news
01:02:40 Q&A

• Scientists weigh giant sea curtain to shield ‘Doomsday Glacier’ from melting – By Gloria Dickie | Mongabay | 2025
• Can $500 Million Save This Glacier? – By John Gertner | The New York Times | 2024
• Could giant underwater curtains slow ice-sheet melting? – By Xiaoying You | Nature | 2024
• Stopping the Flood: Could We Use Targeted Geoengineering to Mitigate Sea Level Rise? – By Michael J. Wolovik and John C. Moore | The Cryosphere | 2018
• Geoengineer polar glaciers to slow sea-level rise – By John C. Moore, Rupert Gladstone. Thomas Zwinger, Michael Wolovik | Nature | 2018

Summary: 
David Keith and Tiffany Shaw review the expected climate responses to SRM, potential side effects, and what can be learned from past aerosol pollution, highlighting the limits and uncertainties of experiments.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction and overview
02:03 How much to trust predictions about SRM consequences?
08:16 Breaking the problem in half
11:22 How to control a system you don’t understand?
29:17 Using perturbed physics ensembles to assess uncertainty
42:00 The case for reliability
51:37 Shaw and Keith discussion
01:03:05 Q&A

• Solar Geoengineering: History, Methods, Governance, Prospects – By Edward Parson and David Keith | Annual Review of Environment and Resource | 2024
• Under a not so white sky: visual impacts of stratospheric aerosol injection – By Ansar Lemon, David Keith, and Steve Albers | Environmental Research Letters | 2025
• Comparing the benefits and risks of solar geoengineering – By David Keith and Anthony Harding | davidkeith.earth | 2024

Summary: 
David Keith wraps up the lecture series, discusses the overall field of climate systems engineering, and speculates about its future.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Introduction and overview
02:38 Concerns about SRM
11:13 How to navigate the climate problem in four dimensions
21:06 The DICE model
28:58 The modified DICE model
31:15 The value of knowing more about SRM
34:36 Comparing risks of SRM and CDR
40:14 Navigating in 4D: Key events and preference order
44:53 Politics of SRM
57:53 Q&A