Interview with Stephen Gardiner and a few questions on CE. „While the world’s scientists, policymakers, and members of civil society get ready for the Paris climate conference (COP21) taking place this and next week, I wondered: Will any philosophers be invited to participate in the talks?“
„The meager financing and policy attention that have been given so far to geoengineering partly reflects unease over the playing-God aspect of any such effort, an unease that also affects attitudes toward bioengineering. But turning away from any serious consideration of such measures because of the discomfort of having to make what may seem to be God-like choices is itself a choice: a choice not to use an available technology, and a choice that entails costs and risks that might otherwise have been avoided.“
„The Global CCS Institute has published its annual major report on the latest developments in carbon capture and storage (CCS). The Global Status of CCS: 2015[nbsp]presents the most comprehensive overview of large-scale CCS projects and policy developments, the importance of the upcoming international climate discussions, new technology developments and further progress towards the emergence of coordinated industrial hubs and clusters.„
„This is what makes me mad. I don’t really care if geoengineering is either good or bad for the environment, but I do know that it is worth researching. When you get right down to it, there is just as much research that suggests geoengineering is not the solution as there is research that carbon emissions are.“
On BECCS [&] co. „We need to be honest. This approach relies on some very dubious calculations and assumes the existence of technologies whose risks have not been adequately studied, let alone discussed publicly. Admittedly, not all of the technologies that could be used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere would require enormous land areas or carbon storage capacities. But that does not mean that alternative methods, such as direct air capture or liming the oceans, would face considerably less public opposition.“
„Gates has also put millions into funding geoengineering techniques—like spraying the stratosphere with sulphate to block the sunlight—that would manipulate the global climate in order to counteract warming. In contrast to the tried-and-true path of the redistribution of wealth and public investment, such gambits tend to be expensive boondoggles (and in the case of geoengineering, a massive risk to the food and water security of billions of people, who just happen to be in the poorest countries of the global South).“
„The Australian scientist and leading writer on climate change talks about his new book, ‚Atmosphere of Hope,‘ and the 2015 United Nations climate talks“
„Advocates of GM lean heavily on the claim that GM is ‘science’. But this is itself a highly dubious assumption. GM is essentially a[nbsp]technology. It is more like engineering than science. And of course this is actually tacitly[nbsp] acknowledged in the very concept/framing of ‘genetic engineering’.“
„As world leaders congregate in Paris for the UN Climate Conference, a special report in the Economist discusses some novel technical solutions, which, if implemented, could pave the way to stopping global warming and reducing carbon emissions. One solution called “geo-engineering” involves the direct capturing of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, through the use of plants specifically grown in power stations.„
Sargoni, Janine; Lockley, Andrew (2015): Environment Policy. Solar Radiation Management and the voluntary carbon market. In Environmental Law Review 17 (4), pp.[nbsp]266–269. DOI: 10.1177/1461452915611277[nbsp]
„The evidence suggests that SRM may also cause a reduction in atmospheric CO2, thereby creating potential carbon credit accrual. The emergence of private interests, in the form of credits tradeable in the voluntary carbon markets, represents a new challenge for the effective public regulation of SRM. Without an appropriate response, major, novel and potentially unacceptable risks to the climate system, biosphere and society may occur.“
