Three main justifications are used to defend geoengineering research and possible deployment—it will allow us to buy time, it will allow us to respond to a climate emergency, and it may be the best option economically. Against these a number of ethical risks intrude: we may use the possibility of climate engineering to blind ourselves to our moral responsibilities; research into geoengineering may provide an excuse for governments to reduce mitigation efforts (in the way research into CCS has); a powerful pro-geoengineering constituency may emerge, skewing decision-making; and, attempting to regulate Earth’s great natural processes is “playing God”, which is dangerous and invites retribution. The playing-God argument comes in theistic and atheistic versions. In addition, as a techno-fix geoengineering may make the problem worse by papering over the social and political causes of the climate crisis.
Australia will not come close to net zero by 2050 under Coalition’s nuclear plan
George Wilkenfeld and Clive Hamilton The Coalition has announced that it plans to commission seven nuclear power stations by 2050. It has said it would