There are several topics in this thread. The starting point was frustration with duplicative, unoriginal publications that don’t qualify as real research, another is ‘governance before research’, and the latest is respectful discourse.
On the first topic, I too get a sense of repetition in many of the scholarly social science/governance/ethics articles posted here (as I do with the mass-media articles) but I am actually encouraged by it, as a measure of dissemination of key concepts. Let every university have somebody on staff who has chewed over the same issues! They're a necessary condition to the discussion without which technology is non-viable. (And many are original). On the second, the climate engineering field (fields!) is experiencing growing pains, as an exotic topic restricted to specialists reaches a global audience. Obscure CE themes spread via new vectors (e.g. Paul Crutzen in 2006?), and with David Keith on Steven Colbert’s show SRM, at least, hit show business. It’s hard for ‘old timers’ to keep up. Certainly, some in the activist community still talk as if they are in a position to determine what is and isn’t appropriate to discuss as if it were still 2005. There **will** be scientific/engineering field research before the social science ethics research is complete (as if it could be) and most people know this even if it is tactically inappropriate to say so. There is something similar on the science & technology side; your ideas escape your control, and what seems a distraction is a measure of their impact (see topic #2). For the third topic, David Keith provides useful examples. His book ‘The Case for Climate Engineering’ avoids attacks and despite the topic the tone is downright… mellow. His Comedy Central gig is worth watching for anyone interested in ‘framing the discourse’ (or preparing for a TV interview) because it shows that much of the debate can be presented in jargon-free, straightforward language. Colbert does a good job of touching on moral hazard, governance and risk - pretending all the while to be a crazy asshole* - as Keith rolls with it as best he can. Framing indeed. * Plus Colbert gets in a great line:"You want to shroud the world in a cloud of sulfuric acid... are you saying that we owe acid rain a big apology?" -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
