SRM & Centering the Global South: Degrees Initiative

Last week, to a lot of online reaction, not all of it good, we spoke to Kelly Wanser from Silver Lining, a non profit that advocates for research in this area. Not everyone was happy we talked about the subject. Understandably people are concerned, with good reason. Humanity doesn't have a great track record of avoiding being reckless or selfish and making decisions here in the so called global north that will definitely hurt other people — but we do it anyway.

Whether it's like small island states that will go under the waves in our lifetimes because of. These effects and at the International Court of Justice hearing lawyers for big nations basically saying, “oh, well, that's sad Sorry about that. I don't think we can do about it though But here here's some tickets to get some immigration for a couple thousand of you anyway to come to Australia but in exchange, we're gonna need your fishing rights and Mineral rights for the undersea stuff.”

Or telling India and China, “sorry. No, you cannot have the standard of living that fossil fuels enabled The West to have.” Weirdly, not everyone is super excited with that kind of trade off.

So if we’re going to feel obliged to look seriously at SRM - which is not the same as endorsing it - at the very least there should be ground rules: Insisting that the science done by and for researchers in the global south should be given privileged position in conversations about whether to do that research, about how to weigh potential costs and benefits, how to govern any of that stuff, how to even talk about it. Because places like Latin America, or South Africa, or Pakistan tend to have communities least able to cope with any potential negative outcomes. Andy Parker, Founder and CEO of the Degrees Initiative based in Bristol in the UK, has doing exactly that for 16 years - we think it made for an interesting chat.

And in May, Degrees Initiative is convening the world’s largest conference to date on SRM, in Cape Town, South Africa. It might well reset the global conversation on the science, the economics, and the geopolitics of SRM.

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00:49 Current Climate Challenges and Innovations

01:39 Global Perspectives on Climate Science

05:14 The Ethics of Solar Geoengineering

10:05 Interview with Andy Parker

19:22 The Degrees Initiative and Global South

23:45 Potential Risks and Considerations of SRM

26:32 Potential Side Effects of Not Using SRM

26:57 Security Implications and Uncertainties

27:40 Degrees Initiative: Research and Support

28:40 Fictional Scenarios and Real Concerns

30:03 Termination Shock and Climate Impact

37:01 Governance Challenges of SRM

40:22 Mainstream Media and SRM Discourse

43:15 Popular Culture's Take on SRM

45:50 Final Thoughts and Future Directions

48:34 Conclusion and Contact Information

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