A Hard Look at the Perils and Potential of Geoengineering by Jeff Goodell:
In the beginning, I had my doubts. The Asilomar International Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies, held last week at the Asilomar conference grounds near Monterey, Calif., was touted as an “unprecedented” gathering of 175 scientists, environmental groups, philosophers, and public policy wonks to discuss the governance of geoengineering – that is, large-scale, intentional manipulation of the Earth’s climate to offset rising temperatures. The meeting was obviously set up to channel the spirit of the first Asilomar conference in 1975, during which biologists drew up voluntary guidelines to help reassure the public that genetically modified organisms would not be released into the world. Asilomar 1.0 is remembered as a landmark event in the evolution of scientific ethics and a turning point in the public acceptance of biotechnology.
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None of this was news to anyone who had spent any time thinking about geoengineering. And for a while, it seemed like Asilomar 2.0 was going to devolve into five days of infighting over the wisdom of attempting to rebrand geoengineering as “climate restoration.” But then a strange thing happened. Amidst the chaos, new ideas – and some lessons – emerged.
Lesson one: Geoengineering is a tabula rasa in the public mind.
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Lesson two: Nobody has any clear idea how to resolve the inequalities inherent in geoengineering.
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Lesson three: The biggest question on the horizon is, “Should field experiments be banned?
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Lesson four: It’s all about the money.
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Lesson five: Trust is everything.
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In the end, I didn’t leave Asilomar feeling like I’d attended a historic event. But I did feel like I may have witnessed the birth of something new – call it the conscience of a geoengineer.
Click on through to read Goodell’s explanation of each lesson. Highly recommended.
And while I have the chance, let me mention that Goodell’s book from a few years ago, Big Coal, should be on everyone’s must-read list. I just got around to reading it very recently, and it’s a terrific, albeit depressing, look at the coal biz and its influence on the climate, the economy, and politics.
