Engineering the Climate: The Ethics of Solar Radiation Management
discusses the ethical issues associated with deliberately engineering
a cooler climate to combat global warming. Climate engineering (also
known as geoengineering) has recently experienced a surge of interest
given the growing likelihood that the global community will fail to
limit the temperature increases associated with greenhouse gases to
safe levels. Deliberate manipulation of solar radiation to combat
climate change is an exciting and hopeful technical prospect,
promising great benefits to those who are in line to suffer most
through climate change. At the same time, the prospect of
geoengineering creates huge controversy. Taking intentional control of
earth’s climate would be an unprecedented step in environmental
management, raising a number of difficult ethical questions. One
particular form of geoengineering, solar radiation management (SRM),
is known to be relatively cheap and capable of bringing down global
temperatures very rapidly. However, the complexity of the climate
system creates considerable uncertainty about the precise nature of
SRM’s effects in different regions. The ethical issues raised by the
prospect of SRM are both complex and thorny. They include: 1) the
uncertainty of SRM’s effects on precipitation patterns, 2) the
challenge of proper global participation in decision-making, 3) the
legitimacy of intentionally manipulating the global climate system in
the first place, 4) the potential to sidestep the issue of dealing
with greenhouse gas emissions, and, 5) the lasting effects on future
generations. It has been widely acknowledged that a sustained and
scholarly treatment of the ethics of SRM is necessary before it will
be possible to make fair and just decisions about whether (or how) to
proceed. This book, including essays by 13 experts in the field of
ethics of geoengineering, is intended to go some distance towards
providing that treatment.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780739175415
Publisert
2015
Utgiver
Vendor
Lexington Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok