Comment & Debate
Jamais Cascio. “It’s Time to Cool the Planet.” Wall Street Journal. June 15th, 2009: “Also let’s be clear about one other thing: We will still have to radically reduce carbon emissions, and do so quickly. We will still have to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, and adopt substantially more sustainable agricultural methods. We will still have to deal with the effects of ecosystems damaged by carbon overload. But what geoengineering can do is slow the increase in temperatures, delay potentially catastrophic “tipping point” events such as a disastrous melting of the Arctic permafrost and give us time to make the changes to our economies and our societies necessary to end the climate disaster. Geoengineering, in other words, is simply a temporary “stay of execution.” We will still have to work for a pardon.”
Samuel Thernstrom. “What Role for Geoengineering?” The American. March 2, 2010: “Moreover, due to inherent limitations of the proposed techniques, it is impractical to rely on geoengineering alone to address the risks of climate change. Any effective climate strategy will have to rely upon a combination of emissions reductions, adaptation, and, if circumstances warrant (as appears likely), some degree of geoengineering. Rather than setting these techniques opposite each other, we should seek to craft climate policies that pursue all three in a complementary fashion.”