AP answers your questions on the news, from geo-engineering to Bernard Madoff’s assets

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Ask AP: Geo-engineering, Bernard Madoff’s assets

Purposely polluting the upper atmosphere? Reflecting sunlight with giant space mirrors?

These aren’t the tactics of a Hollywood supervillain — they’re controversial “geo-engineering” ideas that some say would help combat global warming.

Is there any chance they would help?

Curiosity about geo-engineering inspired one of the questions in this edition of “Ask AP,” a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers’ questions about the news.

If you have your own news-related question that you’d like to see answered by an AP reporter or editor, send it to newsquestions(at)ap.org, with “Ask AP” in the subject line. And please include your full name and hometown so they can be published with your question.

I recently watched a couple of news reports on the devastation that Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme has done to investors’ lives and all they worked for. Have or will his assets be sold and distributed to those who have proof of being victims of his scam?

Rick Vehovc

Springfield, Ill.

Bernard Madoff’s personal assets, estimated to be worth about $100 million, are being sold now so the money can be distributed to Madoff’s thousands of victims.

Just days ago, the U.S. Marshals Service announced that Madoff’s Long Island beach house sold for $9.41 million, more than a half million more than the asking price. His Manhattan penthouse is on sale for $10 million and his Florida property is being offered for $8.5 million.

Meanwhile, the government is selling his yachts and other treasures for tens of millions of dollars more.

In addition, a court-appointed trustee has sued Madoff’s family members to recover nearly $200 million that he says they received as a result of the fraud. But the trustee, Irving Picard, has not stopped there. He is also suing some of Madoff’s customers — people he says received so much more than they invested that they must have known that a fraud was happening.

Picard says nobody received more fraud proceeds than the $7 billion taken in by entities controlled by Florida philanthropist Jeffry Picower and his wife, close friends of Madoff. Picower was found dead in his pool Sunday of an apparent heart attack.

Picard also has sued J. Ezra Merkin in New York and Stanley Chaise in Los Angeles, longtime Madoff associates who, like the Picowers, have denied any wrongdoing. And Picard has sued an overseas hedge fund, Harley International Ltd., saying it should have known that its $1 billion in returns were fraudulent.

Picard says any money collected from the legal actions will be distributed to cheated investors.

Larry Neumeister and Tom Hays

Associated Press Writers

New York

In the recently published book “SuperFreakonomics,” the chapter on using “geo-engineering” to mitigate global warming stirred up some controversy. What are the prospects of geo-engineering, and how effective could it be at cooling the Earth slightly?

Daniel Lippman

Washington

There are several different types of geo-engineering. They include purposely polluting the upper atmosphere to reflect more sunlight (as if a volcano spewed ash into the air), construction of giant space mirrors to reflect sunlight, artificial trees that suck carbon dioxide out of the air, and seeding the ocean to encourage more carbon-sucking algae.

There have been computer models and calculations — that’s all that can be done at this point — supporting the idea that purposeful pollution could cool the weather a bit. The other options are far less studied. Advocates and some groups are calling for more study — though not action.

The big debate, though, is not whether it would work, but whether it should be done.

Proponents say global warming is such a crisis that something has to be done. Opponents say mankind has a bad record of tinkering with Mother Nature and that there are all sorts of possible unforeseen side effects that could be as bad as climate change, if not worse.

Also, the artificial volcano, space mirrors and algae growing don’t address one of the major problems with carbon dioxide pollution: The oceans are becoming more acidic, which poses a potential threat to coral reefs.

Seth Borenstein

AP Science Writer

Washington

For the first time in history, Congress will not allow an increase in social security payments based on a COLA (cost-of-living adjustment). What, if any, government employees will receive an increase in their income based on a cost-of-living formula?

Thank You,

Jerome Pohl

Galloway, N.J.

The Social Security COLA is set by formula, and since the cost of living actually went down this year, Social Security recipients are not receiving a boost in benefits in 2010. It will be the first year without an increase since the automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.

Pay for federal employees is linked to the Labor Department’s Employment Cost Index, a measure of inflation in the private sector labor market. Federal workers are entitled to an across-the-board pay raise equal to 0.5 percentage points less than the ECI. There are also “locality pay” hikes for areas where private sector workers are paid considerably more than federal workers.

President Barack Obama, however, has invoked emergency authority to reduce the pay increase for civilian federal workers to 2 percent. The Senate Appropriations Committee wants to overrule the president and raise the civilian hike to 2.9 percent.

Meanwhile, the military would get a 3.4 percent raise under a defense policy bill signed into law by Obama on Wednesday.

Pay for members of Congress is tied to the ECI as well, but they have already acted to freeze their pay for 2010.

Andrew Taylor

Associated Press Writer

Washington

Have questions of your own? Send them to newsquestions(at)ap.org.