Elizabeth Colbert, a New Yorker staff writer known for her work on climate issues, and Kevin Surprise, an environmental studies lecturer, delve into the contentious world of solar geoengineering. They discuss its risky proposition of cooling the Earth by blocking sunlight, exploring historical perspectives and ethical dilemmas. The conversation highlights the geopolitical implications of unilateral actions and the urgent need for global cooperation. Ultimately, they question whether such interventions might distract from addressing the fundamental causes of climate change.
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Make Sunsets
Luke Eisman, inspired by a sci-fi novel, started Make Sunsets to sell cooling credits.
He released sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, but Mexico shut down his operation.
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Geoengineering Debate
Solar geoengineering, like Make Sunsets, raises ethical questions about climate solutions.
Is it a viable option or a dangerous distraction from necessary lifestyle changes?
insights INSIGHT
Geoengineering Process
Solar geoengineering involves continuously releasing reflective substances into the stratosphere.
This creates a global haze, mimicking volcanic eruptions' cooling effects, but requires constant replenishment.
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The Ministry for the Future is a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson that delves into the urgent issue of climate change. Set in the near future, the story follows the establishment of a UN agency, the Ministry for the Future, whose mission is to advocate for the rights of future generations. The novel is told through multiple perspectives, including those of Mary Murphy, the head of the Ministry, and Frank May, an American aid worker who survives a devastating heat wave in India. The book explores various innovative solutions to climate change, such as the introduction of a new currency called 'carboni' to incentivize decarbonization, and it presents a hopeful yet realistic vision of how humanity might cooperate to mitigate the effects of climate change. The narrative includes a mix of fictional eyewitness accounts, non-fiction descriptions, and diverse writing styles, reflecting the complexity and urgency of the climate crisis[1][3][5].
Termination Shock
Neal Stephenson
In 'Termination Shock', Neal Stephenson depicts a near-future world ravaged by the greenhouse effect, with superstorms, rising sea levels, global flooding, heat waves, and deadly pandemics. The story centers around T.R. Schmidt, a Texas billionaire who implements a solar geoengineering scheme by seeding the atmosphere with sulfur dioxide to cool the planet. However, this plan has uneven effects globally, benefiting some regions while threatening others. The novel follows a diverse cast of characters, including the Queen of the Netherlands and a Canadian-Indian Sikh, as they grapple with the geopolitical and social consequences of this rogue climate fix. The book raises critical questions about the potential solutions and dire risks associated with large-scale climate interventions[1][3][5].
Under a White Sky
The Nature of the Future
Joan Lluís Riera
Elizabeth Kolbert
In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. She meets biologists trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, engineers turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland, Australian researchers developing a 'super coral' to survive on a hotter globe, and physicists contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth. Kolbert explores how human civilization's capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world and how the very interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. The book is by turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic.
Solar geoengineering — the idea of cooling the planet by deflecting the sun’s rays — is so risky that scientists and policy experts can’t even agree on whether to research it.
This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Matt Collette and Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King.