Full paper attached. ---
/Experiment Earth: Responsible Innovation in Geoengineering/ by Jack Stilgoe /A Case for Climate Engineering/ by David Keith*/Experiment Earth: Responsible Innovation in Geoengineering/* by Jack Stilgoe <http://m.spp.oxfordjournals.org/search?author1=Jack+Stilgoe&sortspec=date&submit=Submit> Routledge, New York, 2015, 222 pages, US$145 (hardback), ISBN 9780415732376 */A Case for Climate Engineering/* by David Keith <http://m.spp.oxfordjournals.org/search?author1=David+Keith&sortspec=date&submit=Submit> MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2013, 112 pages, US$16.95 (hardback), ISBN 9780262019828
In 1991, the volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines lofted 17 megatons tons of sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere, cooling the Earth by about 0.5 °C for the next two years. This cooling temporarily offset most of the warming caused by all the greenhouse gases humans had accumulated in the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution.
Thus, one might ask: should humans consider conducting an expanded version of this natural experiment? In particular, should scientists and engineers now undertake research on so-called climate engineering in the hope that it will improve humanity’s ability to manage climate change?
Two recent books—David Keith’s /A Case for Climate Engineering/ and Jack Stilgoe’s /Experiment Earth/—engage this question from very different points of view. Both recommend research, one more enthusiastically than the other. Both books are fascinating and informative. Together they clarify the challenge, but do not instill confidence that they have solved it. Keith takes an appropriately broad view of climate engineering and its potential role in humanity’s response to climate change. But he organizes his analysis in a manner seemingly designed to underestimate the risks. Stilgoe is more humble about humanity’s ability to understand the risks posed by geoengineering and offers a solution—treat the technology as an anticipatory social experiment governed by both scientists and non-scientists—but defines the scope of the experiments narrowly. His concept seems compelling, but the more broadly the experiments are framed, the less clear it becomes how they would work.
David Keith, perhaps the world’s most prominent climate engineering researcher, has been studying the topic for over 20 years. His book provides a brief, elegant, and clear survey of the field and a summary of his personal views. Keith argues that, if research demonstrates its technical viability, climate engineering could play a valuable role in …
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Lempert 2016 - Experiment Earth.pdf
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