Ken Caldeira is a world renowned researcher who investigates and creates models of issues related to climate, carbon cycle, energy systems, and ocean acidification. In 1978 Caldeira obtained his B.A in Applied Science at Rutgers University, then in 1988 and 1991 he went on to receive his Science M.S and PhD in Atmospheric Sciences from New York University (NYU). Calderia is currently a senior scientist at Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology on the Stanford University Campus in California, as well as a professor in the department of Earth System Science in the same institution. Professor Caldeira was lead author for the U.N’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR5 report, “Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis”, in 2013 and co-author of the 2010 U.S National Academy America’s Climate Choices Report. Caldeira is also a member of the committee that recently in 2015 published the National Academy of Sciences report “Geoengineering Climate: Technical Evaluation and Discussion of Impacts”. One of the many recognitions Ken Caldeira has received include the Edward Teller Fellowship, from the Energy and Environmental Directorate at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which he was a part of from the early 1990s to 2005. Today Ken Caldeira continues to be a important figure in environmental research through the various contributions and research he conducts alongside his team at Stanford. While having interests in marine biochemistry, chemical oceanography, and energy technologies Caldeira also enjoys several activities like music and song composition as well as working on video and photography .
Among many of the articles Ken Caldeira has contributed to and published one of his more recent has been in 2019 titled “Response of Bleached and Symbiotic Sea Anemones to the Plastic Microfiber Exposure” here he discusses the interactions between symbiotic and bleached sea anemones to microplastics in the ocean. Symbiotic and bleached were the two terms used to describe the two groups of sea anemones, one that still had their healthy mutual symbiosis with algae, was symbiotic and the other whose algae had been ‘expelled or left’ was bleached and colorless. In the experiment bleached anemones consumed more plastics overall when compared to the symbiotics regardless of whether the plastic consumed was plain or covered with shrimp homogenate (that served to represent prey). Both groups, however, were more than 80% likely to consume the plastics covered in shrimp homogenate, and the plastic that was most likely to be consumed was Nylon. This more recent article is one of the many to demonstrate Professor Caldeira’s involvement in the current conversation of coral bleaching, and his ability to stay up to date with current issues of the environment.
Published in 1999 Mr. Caldeira also published the article “Enhanced carbonate dissolution: a means of sequestering CO₂ as ocean bicarbonate.” In this article a new method of reducing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is discussed. This method involves combining CO₂ with mineral carbonates, like limestone, to form bicarbonates that would end up in the ocean. The findings conclude that this method is naturally occurring, but takes thousands of years when it happens in the natural way, and so it wouldn’t be like other unnatural methods of CO₂ injection. The ingredients needed for this approach are fairly abundant and the reactor based products (results) are fairly benign, and so this method is presented as most worthy to remove atmospheric CO₂ and sequestering it in a non-risky and ecological way. Caldeira is hyper-reflective on the issue of CO₂ and the underlying consequences if this problem is left unresolved, and so he proposes reasonable solutions like the one mentioned in this article to be taken into account if some form of action should be taken by those in charge of implementing environmental programs.
A third impressive article published by Professor Caldeira in 2013 is “Inorganic carbon turnover caused by digestion of carbonate sands and metabolic activity of holothurians,” this article’s focus is on showing impact that sea cucumbers (holothurians) have on their coral reef environments. After the conduction of this experiment it was found that these organisms had the ability to dissolve CaCO₃ in their gut and have a physiological role in the cycling of this molecule, and local chemistry. In conducting research like this, Caldeira highlight the importance of all organisms in a biological community, he makes a point that small creatures also serve a purpose and shouldn’t be overlooked in their importance. His work could be used to emphasize the importance of preservation efforts as he showcases some organisms play a bigger role from what is generally believed.
Overall Professor Caldeira has been in the study of climate change and oceanography for decades and his work has resulted in many readers being informed about the environments they live in and the functions they serve, as well human impact on these flora and fauna, and even about possible solutions to these mistakes. In the first and third articles Caldeira focuses on the biota of one of the most fragile habitats of the world to bring attention both to the role of its organisms and to the destruction that can happen because of human activity. In the second article Caldeira offers a method to counteract one of the biggest problems we face with climate change today, the highest atmospheric CO₂ levels in history. In this study Caldeira offers a note to state that the method he discusses is only remove some of the damage we have already done and not as an easy solution to global warming. In this sense Caldeira acknowledges that the problem of global warming is one that needs immediate action but also a complete change of mindset.
In a recent video by Carnegie Global Ecology Professor Calderia spoke about the origin of his involvement in the environmental sciences, stating that it all began with one question which was “what would happen to Antarctica if all fossil fuel resources were used?”. He took it upon himself to find an answer, and upon conducting a model study he got his answer: that there were sufficient resources to melt away all of Antarctica and cause more than 60 meters of rising sea level in the centuries to come.
In another interview with the channel Climate Engineering Conferences: Critical Global Discussions, Professor Calderia answers the question: how do climate engineering techniques relate to mitigation and adaptation? His response is “climate engineering is a basket of strategies to try to reduce the amount of climate change that results from our greenhouse gas emissions and on one hand one of these strategies follows mitigation (reducing net addition) and on the other hand is changing the way we live and the kinds of things we build, another category involves the novel interventions that aim at intervening in the Earth’s systems”. When confronted with the question about whether any climate engineering techniques would actually address ocean acidification his response was that ‘Some strategies would do nothing to ocean acidification’ one of the examples he give is reflecting sunlight to space as this wouldn’t affect ocean acidification, while ‘greenhouse gas removal from the atmosphere and adding anti-acids to the ocean that would react with carbonic acid’, however, some observers as he states ‘would say it would be best to create a whole new energy system that does not use the atmosphere and the oceans as waste dumps’.
To conclude, Professor Caldeira is a dedicated researcher and scientist who has for many years studied and evaluated the extent of human impact on the world’s ecosystems, through his work and his dialogue he has spread awareness and knowledge not only about what is occurring in several natural habitats but also providing possible solutions that might be taken into consideration by lawmakers and those responsible for making policies, as well as those who advocate for more methods to mitigate the changes environments have undergone and reverse them with time. Through his efforts and work Professor Caldeira has had the opportunity to be involved in international discussions with leaders from around the world and offered his findings and opinions about global warming and what needs to be done about it. Not only will future researchers look at his work for reference but they might also look at it as framework for dealing with climate change.
Works Cited
Barratt, A. (n.d.). Bleached Anemones? Nemo and the Zombie Anemone -. Retrieved from https://www.livingoceansfoundation.org/nemo-and-the-zombie-anemone/
Cohan, E. (2015, March 10). Ken Caldeira. Retrieved from https://climateone.org/people/ken-caldeira
Hume, D. (2018, July 29). Ocean Storage of CO2. Retrieved from https://www.maritime-executive.com/features/ocean-storage-of-co2
Ken Caldeira. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.climatecommunication.org/who-we-are/advisors/ken-caldeira/
Ken Caldeira. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www-legacy.dge.carnegiescience.edu/labs/caldeiralab/Caldeira_bio.html
De Orte, M. R., Clowez, S., & Caldeira, K. (2019). Response of bleached and symbiotic sea anemones to plastic microfiber exposure. Environmental Pollution,249, 512-517. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2019.02.100
Rau, G. H., & Caldeira, K. (1999). Enhanced Carbonate Dissolution: A means of sequestering waste CO2 as ocean bicarbonate. Energy Conversion and Management,40, 1803-1813. doi:10.1016/s0196-8904(99)00071-0
Schneider, K., Silverman, J., Kravitz, B., Rivlin, T., Schneider-Mor, A., Barbosa, S., . . . Caldeira, K. (2013). Inorganic carbon turnover caused by digestion of carbonate sands and metabolic activity of holothurians. Estuarine, Coastal, and Shelf Science,133, 217-223. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2013.08.029
Science, C. (2015, August 10). Ken Caldeira. Retrieved from https://carnegiescience.edu/scientist/ken-caldeira
