Pie in the Sky?
A science writer makes the case for stratospheric veils and other large-scale technological interventions to curb man’s global impact on climate.
The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World
By Oliver Morton
Princeton University Press. 2016, 428 pages.
Despite the current devastations of the zika virus, proposals to eradicate the species of mosquito that transmits it—as well as yellow and dengue fevers—strike many as overstepping the bounds of human action. Geoengineering may seem a far cry from insect control, yet schemes for large-scale intervention to mitigate climate change raise similar alarms. Tampering with what people understand to be natural, notes science writer Oliver Morton, “rouses feelings from uneasiness to disgust.” For many, geoengineering represents “the final, irreversible replacement of the authentic world with a fake one.”
This book works to calm such concerns. The planet has been remade in the past and at present, and it will continue to be remade, the author declares. Morton urges readers to consider deliberate, informed responses to changing climate not as “a diminishment of the degree to which the world is natural,” but rather as “a reimagining of how humans and nature can intermingle.”
While the history of human impact has been largely unintentional and destructive, producing a global economy that is “something akin to a force of nature,” achieving the reverse may be possible. Beyond the suspicions of “playing god,” geoengineeering projects also strike many as absurd—establishing veils of sulfate aerosols in the stratosphere to block intensifying solar rays, for example, or seeding clouds with tiny reflective particles to bounce those rays back, away from Earth.
Recognizing that geoengineering’s scale generates the most skepticism, Morton addresses the many objections with measured consideration. Unintended consequences and mishaps, elevated to a global scale, could potentially doom Earth, some worry. Others fret about uneven benefits producing winners and losers; one model predicts that the protective veil to shield China from excessive heat would cause damaging cold in India. The costs also are staggering: Aeronautics to launch sulfate into the stratosphere would require upwards of $2 billion a year.
Even if a plan were to win approval, continued funding cannot be assured. Projects would require political and public will, and only an international accord could ensure regional and global alignment. Moreover, nations could weaponize a project, as America did in the 1960s, seeding clouds over Vietnam and Laos to extend the monsoon rains and flood enemy supply routes. Despite Geneva’s 1978 Environmental Modification Convention prohibiting such action, militarized geoengineering remains a threat. Environmentalists worry about undermining commitments to cut carbon emissions and support alternative energy. Indeed, in 2009, business magnate Richard Branson enthused that a “geoengineering answer” would mean “we could carry on flying our planes and driving our cars.”
By exploring these multiple challenges, Morton highlights the entanglement of issues at stake. Yet rather than counter each, he demonstrates the promise of a climate science that is often overlooked or dismissed. While $2 billion a year is a staggering price for a single geoengineered system, the ravages of extreme weather events could escalate costs far higher if left unattended. Nor must the technology be blanket in scale; stratospheric veils, for example, can be employed in concentrated areas to tackle specific, even temporary, climate threats, and adjusted to suit both China and India, as well as other regions.
While critics dismiss geoengineering as impious, impractical, and even dangerous, Morton keeps his eye on its possibilities for “building up the imaginative capacity needed [for the] deep changes the world is going through.” Climate is not a problem to be solved, he emphasizes, but a complex, enduring, and evolving challenge that will require continuous response. And because any effort will contribute a countervailing factor, it is crucial to explore myriad strategies. The author urges “a new consciousness of what can be done for the planet rather than blind deference to what are claimed to be its limits.”
Morton’s effort to establish greater legitimacy for this new field should be lauded. Yet his omission of the pioneering work of engineering departments in this lengthy tome is puzzling. Ambitious plans for geoengineering will have scant success without the input and vision of this key research community.
Review by Robin Tatu
Robin Tatu is Prism’s senior editorial consultant.
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