A Case for Climate Engineering - 9780262019828

Climate engineering -- which could slow the pace of global warming by injectingreflective particles into the upper atmosphere -- has emerged in recent years as an extremelycontroversial technology. And for good reason: it carries unknown risks and it may underminecommitments to conserving energy. Some critics also view it as an immoral human breach of thenatural world. The latter objection, David Keith argues in A Scientist's Case for ClimateEngineering, is groundless; we have been using technology to alter our environment foryears. But he agrees that there are large issues at stake.

A leading scientistlong concerned about climate change, Keith offers no naïve proposal for an easy fix to what isperhaps the most challenging question of our time; climate engineering is no silver bullet. But heargues that after decades during which very little progress has been made in reducing carbonemissions we must put this technology on the table and consider it responsibly. That doesn't mean wewill deploy it, and it doesn't mean that we can abandon efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.But we must understand fully what research needs to be done and how the technology might be designedand used. This book provides a clear and accessible overview of what the costs and risks might be,and how climate engineering might fit into a larger program for managing climate change.