https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5272391
*Authors* Julius Fenn, Michael Gorki, Philipp Höfele, Louisa Estadieu, Christophe Becht, Lars Kulbe, Johannes Gekeler, Andrea Kiesel *28 May 2025* *Abstract* Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C has intensified interest in climate engineering technologies such as Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), which mimic volcanic cooling. Given potential insufficiency of mitigation alone, ethical examination of SAI is imperative. This study investigates whether laypersons’ ethical reasoning about SAI can be empirically identified. Using a multi-method design, we combined Cognitive-Affective Maps (CAMs) and open-ended textual responses to elicit twenty ethical concerns. Large Language Models (LLMs) synthesized lay perspectives and compared them against formal ethical definitions. Results revealed diverse ethical considerations, including governance, risk, equitable deployment, and emergency use. In contrast to formal definitions, lay participants foregrounded practical implications, social trust, and personal experience. Our findings demonstrate the utility of integrating data sources for empirical ethics research and underscore the complexity of public ethical discourse on SAI. This approach promotes more inclusive, evidence-based dialogue on the responsible development and governance of climate engineering technologies. *Source: SSRN* -- 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 view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/CAHJsh98oS8TdomDsEsDp9zDw0ym1TssY8Kjz76iEjOMe%3DB21WQ%40mail.gmail.com.
