A UK government agency recently announced it would spend £57 million on a controversial project to develop geoengineering technologies.

The Exploring Climate Cooling Programme will fund 21 international research teams to conduct small-scale, controlled outdoor experiments to thicken Arctic sea ice and brighten clouds, to prevent global warming from increasing past irreversible tipping points.

Geoengineering has long been a point of contention amongst scientists, environmental academics and conspiracy theorists - each firm in their beliefs about whether such interventions are necessary, effective, or risk irreversibly damaging the planet.

Alasdair speaks with two academics studying geoengineering - Albert Van Wijngaarden and Adrian Hindes - who call for nuanced understanding and more productive conversation between the advocates and opposers of such radical interventions. They discuss the history of polar and solar geoengineering, the risks involved, and the lack of global governance.

If you enjoyed this episode, stay tuned - we plan to explore geoengineering in more detail in the future.

Further reading:

Plans to cool the Earth by blocking sunlight are gaining momentum but critical voices risk being excluded, October 2024, Albert Van Wijngaarden and Adrian Hindes

Do-or-Die: Should we be talking about geoengineering?, December 2022, Land and Climate Review

Soviet and Russian perspectives on geoengineering and climate management - Oldfield, J. D., & Poberezhskaya, M. (2023). .Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews

Controversial geoengineering projects to test Earth-cooling tech funded by UK agency, May 2025, Nature

Not such a bright idea: cooling the Earth by reflecting sunlight back to space is a dangerous distraction, March 2024, The Conversation

Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering, August 2024, Nordic International Studies Association

After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair and Restoration, 2019, Holly Jean Buck, Verso

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