Tag: discourse

Media

The Conversation: ‘Geostorm’ movie shows dangers of hacking the climate – we need to talk about real-world geoengineering now

“Admittedly, the movie is a fantasy set in a deeply unrealistic near-future. But coming on the heels of one of the most extreme hurricane seasons in recent history, it’s tempting to imagine a world where we could regulate the weather. Despite a long history of interest in weather modification, controlling the climate is, to be frank, unattainable with current technology. But underneath the frippery of “Geostorm,” is there a valid message about the promises and perils of planetary management?”

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Media

Science Trends: Governing Climate Engineering By Unpacking Underlying Assumptions

“Examining such assumptions is therefore important for debates on climate engineering research and development. Part of this work consists in theoretical and philosophical criticism, another seeks to broaden the debate by looking at how different audiences relate to the topic by studying media discourses, running focus groups with lay people, or interviewing stakeholders. The research reported here looked at scientists who advise the European Commission on research funding priorities within the domain of sustainability and climate change. These scientists’ professional lives revolve around solving the same problem climate engineering purportedly addresses, but they don’t have a direct stake in climate engineering itself.”

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Media

Energy Post: The geo-engineering taboo

“A new book by David Hone, Chief Climate Change Adviser at Shell, takes the reader on a journey through the transition in the energy system that must be undertaken to address the climate change issue. The book, Putting the Genie Back: Solving the Climate and Energy Dilemma, deals with a wide range of topics, including carbon pricing, electric cars and solar power, and even ventures into areas such as the somewhat taboo subject of geo-engineering. What follows is an excerpt from the book where Hone discusses the geo-engineering solution.”

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Fuentes-George, Kemi (2017): Consensus, Certainty, and Catastrophe. Discourse, Governance, and Ocean Iron Fertilization

Fuentes-George, Kemi (2017): Consensus, Certainty, and Catastrophe. Discourse, Governance, and Ocean Iron Fertilization. In Global Environmental Politics 10 (2), pp.[nbsp]125–143. DOI: 10.1162/GLEP_a_00404

“Crucial to their efforts was their interpretation of uncertainty: for opponents, scientific uncertainty implied possibly devastating consequences of iron dumping, which was thus best addressed with extreme caution. This normative approach ultimately shaped governance, since advocates successfully used it to lobby institutions in ocean governance to prevent carbon credits from being issued for ocean fertilization. Since these subjective understandings of certainty influenced global ocean governance, this article explains international behavior as a consequence of changing norms.”

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Pidgeon, Nick F.; Spence, Elspeth (2017): Perceptions of enhanced weathering as a biological negative emissions option

Pidgeon, Nick F.; Spence, Elspeth (2017): Perceptions of enhanced weathering as a biological negative emissions option. In Biology letters 13 (4). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0024

“This paper addresses the social acceptability of enhanced weathering, a technology that would involve spreading silicate particles over terrestrial surfaces in order to boost the biological processes that currently sequester CO2 as part of the earth’s natural carbon cycle. We present the first exploration of British attitudes towards enhanced weathering, using an online survey (n = 935) of a representative quota sample of the public. Baseline awareness of weathering was extremely low.”

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Minx, Jan C.; et al. (2017): Fast growing research on negative emissions

Minx, Jan C.; Lamb, William F.; Callaghan, Max W.; Bornmann, Lutz; Fuss, Sabine (2017): Fast growing research on negative emissions. In Environ. Res. Lett. 12 (3), p.[nbsp]35007. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aa5ee5

“In this paper we use scientometric methods and topic modelling to identify and characterize the available evidence on NETs as recorded in the Web of Science. We find that the development of the literature on NETs has started later than for climate change as a whole, but proceeds more quickly by now. A total number of about 2900 studies have accumulated between 1991 and 2016 with almost 500 new publications in 2016.”

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Curvelo, Paula; Guimarães Pereira, Ângela (2016): Geoengineering: Reflections on Current Debates

Curvelo, Paula; Guimarães Pereira, Ângela (2016): Geoengineering: Reflections on Current Debates. In: Ana Delgado (Hg.): Technoscience and Citizenship. Ethics and Governance in the Digital Society, Bd.[nbsp]17. Cham: Springer Verlag (The International Library of Ethics, Law and Technology), S. 163–184.

“In this paper we propose to investigate the current debates on geoengineering, here considered as an illustrative metaphor of particular technoscientific promises and ‘techno-fix’ narratives that are emerging in our society.”

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Peer-reviewed Publications

van Hemer, Mieke (2016): Speculative promise as a driver in climate engineering research. The case of Paul Crutzen’s back-of-the-envelope calculation on solar dimming with sulfate aerosols

van Hemer, Mieke (2016): Speculative promise as a driver in climate engineering research. The case of Paul Crutzen’s back-of-the-envelope calculation on solar dimming with sulfate aerosols. In Futures. DOI 10.1016/j.futures.2016.11.006.

“In this paper, I study the generative role of speculative promise in climate engineering research. My analysis operationalizes Alfred Nordmann’s call for a ‘forensics of wishing’, a variety of technology assessment which scrutinizes the politics of anticipation in technoscience. Using scientific articles and reports as primary sources I trace the uptake and contestation of bold claims made by atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen a decade ago.”

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Caldeira, Ken; Bala, Govindasamy (2016): Reflecting on 50 years of geoengineering research

Caldeira, Ken; Bala, Govindasamy (2016): Reflecting on 50 years of geoengineering research. In Earth’s Future, n/a‐n/a. DOI 10.1002/2016EF000454

“The primary focus of many of our comments is solar geoengineering and not carbon dioxide removal. Thus, this text is not intended to comprise a comprehensive review or set of carefully documented analyses. Our primary conclusion is that sustained progress in ‘geoengineering’ research will depend on social and material support for experimental work that can provide the observational basis for improved modeling and analysis, and, potentially, development and deployment of systems that may help protect the environment and improve human well-being.”

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