Stabilizing the world's climates means cutting carbon dioxide pollution. There's no way around
it. But what if that's not enough? What if it's too difficult to accomplish in the time
allotted or worse what if it's so late in the game that even cutting carbon emissions to zero
tomorrow wouldn't do? Enter solar geoengineering. The principle is simple: attempt to cool
Earth by reflecting more sunlight back into space. The primary mechanism shooting particles
into the upper atmosphere implies more pollution not less. If that doesn't sound scary it
should. There are lots of risks unknowns and unknowables. In Geoengineering: The Gamble
climate economist Gernot Wagner provides a balanced take on the possible benefits and
all-too-real risks especially the so-called "moral hazard" that researching or even just
discussing (solar) geoengineering would undermine the push to cut carbon emissions in the first
place. Despite those risks he argues solar geoengineering may only be a matter of time. Not
if but when. As the founding executive director of Harvard's Solar Geoengineering Research
Program Wagner explores scenarios of a geoengineered future offering an inside-view of the
research already under way and the actions the world must take to guide it in a productive
direction.
