Geoengineering and the politics of science, by Clive Hamilton
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, April 16, 2014, doi:
10.1177/0096340214531173
http://bos.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/15/0096340214531173.abstract.html
The latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) include an assessment of geoengineering---methods for removing
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or cooling the Earth by reflecting
more of the sun's radiation back into space. The IPCC assessment signals
the arrival of geoengineering into the mainstream of climate science,
and may normalize climate engineering as a policy response to global
warming. Already, conservative forces in the United States are promoting
it as a substitute for emissions reductions. Climate scientists are
sharply divided over geoengineering, in much the same way that Manhattan
Project scientists were divided over nuclear weapons after World War II.
Testing a geoengineering scheme, such as sulfate aerosol spraying, is
inherently difficult. Deployment would make political decision makers
highly dependent on a technocratic elite. In a geoengineered world,
experts would control the conditions of daily life, and it is unlikely
that such a regime would be a just one. A disproportionate number of
scientists currently working on geoengineering have either worked at, or
collaborated with, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The
history of US nuclear weapons laboratories during the Cold War reveals a
belief in humankind's right to exercise total mastery over nature. With
geoengineering, this kind of thinking is staging a powerful comeback in
the face of climate crisis.
----
Hamilton correctly explains my arguments against a gradual ramp up of
geoengineering as proposed by David Keith, and the lack of a rebuttal in
Keith's book.
But I just want to point out that even though I had a summer job at
Livermore when I was a grad student 41 years ago, and have collaborated
with climate scientists there since then on nuclear winter and
geoengineering, I am not evil and determined to control the world with
geoengineering.
Alan
--
Alan Robock, Distinguished Professor
Editor, Reviews of Geophysics
Director, Meteorology Undergraduate Program
Department of Environmental Sciences Phone: +1-848-932-5751
Rutgers University Fax: +1-732-932-8644
14 College Farm Road E-mail: rob...@envsci.rutgers.edu
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8551 USA http://envsci.rutgers.edu/~robock
http://twitter.com/AlanRobock
Watch my 18 min TEDx talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsrEk1oZ-54
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