Review of Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives

This book is an apology for addressing global climate change through the application of geo-engineering (GE) which encompasses injection of reflective sulfate particles into the air and seeding the ocean with iron. The ethical implications of CE are addressed but most of the book is relegated to ex...

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Main Author: Ashford, Nicholas A.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Anthem Press 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85066
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author Ashford, Nicholas A.
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Engineering
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Engineering
Ashford, Nicholas A.
author_sort Ashford, Nicholas A.
collection MIT
description This book is an apology for addressing global climate change through the application of geo-engineering (GE) which encompasses injection of reflective sulfate particles into the air and seeding the ocean with iron. The ethical implications of CE are addressed but most of the book is relegated to examining the technical, economic, legal, and political implications of its adoption – including challenges posed by nations taking unilateral action. Many of the essays in this multi-authored book argue that we have made little progress on reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) – because of the large economic costs and lack of a collective world agreement – and that the imperative of a worsening global climate leaves us little choice but to undertake the R&D necessary to develop CE, which some of the authors of the chapters consider inevitable. While the need to clarify and assess the side effects of CE is acknowledged, perhaps too much optimism – and too little technological and legal uncertainty – about their management is voiced and in some cases defended on cost-benefit grounds. While the difficulties of getting a global agreement on reducing GHGs are discussed, a close reading of the book reveals equivalent, if not greater difficulties in addressing the legal barriers to CE.
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spelling mit-1721.1/850662022-09-27T14:37:47Z Review of Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives Ashford, Nicholas A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Engineering Ashford, Nicholas A. Ashford, Nicholas A. This book is an apology for addressing global climate change through the application of geo-engineering (GE) which encompasses injection of reflective sulfate particles into the air and seeding the ocean with iron. The ethical implications of CE are addressed but most of the book is relegated to examining the technical, economic, legal, and political implications of its adoption – including challenges posed by nations taking unilateral action. Many of the essays in this multi-authored book argue that we have made little progress on reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) – because of the large economic costs and lack of a collective world agreement – and that the imperative of a worsening global climate leaves us little choice but to undertake the R&D necessary to develop CE, which some of the authors of the chapters consider inevitable. While the need to clarify and assess the side effects of CE is acknowledged, perhaps too much optimism – and too little technological and legal uncertainty – about their management is voiced and in some cases defended on cost-benefit grounds. While the difficulties of getting a global agreement on reducing GHGs are discussed, a close reading of the book reveals equivalent, if not greater difficulties in addressing the legal barriers to CE. 2014-02-21T17:02:58Z 2014-02-21T17:02:58Z 2013-11 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/BookReview http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85066 Ashford, Nicholas A., review of CLIMATE CHANGE GEOENGINEERING: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES, LEGAL ISSUES, GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORKS, edited by Wil C. G. Burns and Andrew L. Strauss, Cambridge University Press, 2013, 328 pp. Anthem EnviroExperts Review, posted on Tuesday, November 5th, 2013 at 10:40pm. en_US http://www.anthemenviroexperts.com/?p=585 Anthem Enviroexperts Review Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Anthem Press Nicholas Ashford
spellingShingle Ashford, Nicholas A.
Review of Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives
title Review of Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives
title_full Review of Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives
title_fullStr Review of Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives
title_full_unstemmed Review of Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives
title_short Review of Climate Change Geoengineering: Philosophical Perspectives
title_sort review of climate change geoengineering philosophical perspectives
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85066
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