Climatron: Personal Blog of Kyle Vandercamp

The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson

I can see a pattern emerging in the recent surge of interest and discussion about geoengineering. It may be a fiction right now, but suffice it to say the jury is still out. The confluence of events include:

+ A less than gradual rise in debate, chatter, knowledge and acceptance of the concept of geoengineering – an idea that has quite literally risen like an oxygen bubble from the bottom of the scientific barrel (where it lay sequestered with other moral dilemmas).

+ The salience and interest given to the Superfreakonomics/IV’s StratoShield ‘presentation’ last month.

+ US Congressional hearings into geoengineering, starring Ken Caldeira et al, whilst world leaders gather pre-Copenhagen in Barcelona to affirm the death of a treaty at Copenhagen.

+ President Obama’s declaration to commit the US to a series of emissions cuts, beginning at 17% on 2005 levels by 2020. There are further cuts as part of this plan, but as De Boer and a host of others confirm, the combined efforts of industrialised nations are falling far short of the estimates for meaningful action in avoiding significant climate disruption.

The pattern is there and the pattern suggests implementation of geoengineering principles is inevitable, and that America will get involved soonish. When you look at it, it’s not so mysterious – a cheap and effective way to bring cooling, a stop-gap measure whilst other solutions are (or are not) found… This clean logic hides the truth of how horrendous and out of control the move will be. Ethically, morally it is bereft – there are also so many socio-political scenarios to contemplate… It is one thing to watch as the natural world responds to years of human activity, quite another to intervene before the worst occurs, knowing that you provoked the worst. To be continued!