Material World - 10/12/2009

In the USA, fuelled by more than 100 million dollars from the Federal Recovery Act, the Ocean Observatories Initiative has just begun. It plans to create an unprecedented network of underwater surveillance equipment in the earth's oceans. Europe and Asia also have plans for networks of ocean observatories. Quentin Cooper finds out how monitoring the oceans deeps, second by second, will help us understand scientific questions as far ranging as the process of ocean circulation and the impact of future climate change. As politicians and climate scientists in Copenhagen struggle to reach agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, some scientists are wondering if they can reduce climate change by engineering the Earth. Geoengineering might involve reflecting sunlight back into space or removing some of the excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Quentin Cooper hears from a geoengineer who thinks it's possible. And the latest from the launchpad of NASA's WISE satellite mission, due to blast off to map the entire sky in infrared.