What should we, as socialist environmentalists, say about proposals for "geoengineering" (or "climate intervention"). The most common proposals are for a variety of methods for carbon sequestration ("drawdown", or "negative emissions"), to remove CO2 from the carbon cycle and air; and "solar radiation management", seeking to reflect more of the sun's rays back into space, such as by spraying vast quantities of sulphur into the high atmosphere. Are these proposals for climate intervention a distraction from the need to prevent ongoing emissions? Too risky or harmful to try? Or a necessary move to mitigate the harm of historic (and ongoing) emissions?
The socialist environmental reading group discussed this topic.
Readings (may be further added to):
- After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair, and Restoration - by Holly Jean Buck (get in touch for help getting the ebook)
- Can science fix climate change? The case against climate engineering — by Mike Hulme (added since the first reading group)
- The politics of carbon drawdown, review by Todd Hamer in Solidarity of Holly Jean Buck's book, and of Elizabeth Kolbert's (see below)
- The Big Bad Fix: The Case Against Climate Geoengineering - by ETC Group, BiofuelWatch and Heinrich Boell Foundation
- Geoengineering and carbon drawdown: thinking through climate futures — introductory and concluding speeches of this meeting, with Holly Jean Buck and Zack Muddle (video)
- Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future - by Elizabeth Kolbert