Making Sense of Climate Engineering
Climate engineering (CE) refers to technologies for large-scale, deliberate manipulation of the Earth’s climate by either removing greenhouse gases from the air or by applying solar reflective approaches in order to avoid an escalating global warming. It includes a wide range of proposed methods such as ocean fertilization, space mirrors, air capture, injecting sulfur aerosols into the stratosphere, and enhancing marine-cloud reflectivity. These methods vary greatly in their technical aspects, scope in time and space, potential environmental impacts, timescales of operation and the legal, ethical, and governance issues that they pose (Royal Society 2009). This project aims to explore the formation of social representations around emerging and complex technologies for large-scale, deliberate manipulation of the global climate, often referred to as geoengineering or climate engineering. The project is examining sense-making around climate engineering in four different countries (the United States, Japan, New Zealand, and Sweden are currently included in the study).
Project participants/Partners:
- Lisa Dilling
- Rachel Hauser
- Partners in Sweden, Japan, New Zealand
