Quirks and Quarks

The Planet Remade - through geoengineering

Science writer Oliver Morton explores the risks and potential benefits of schemes to intentionally cool the planet in the face of our inadvertent efforts to warm it

Geoengineering to reduce climate warming might be more politically than technically difficult

Visible layering of cooling aerosols in the atmosphere in picture taken by the Space Shuttle after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. This is an uncontrolled version of one suggestion for engineering the climate. (NASA)
2015 was the warmest year on record, and fossil-fuel emissions continue to amplify the greenhouse effect. And according to a new book, in order to keep climate change below dangerous levels, we're going to need to radically cut back emissions - and perhaps make other interventions on the climate, through what's known as geoengineering.
Oliver Morton, a science journalist and Essays and Briefings Editor at the Economist magazine in London, England, examines the case for geoengineering in his new book, The Planet Remade - How Geoengineering Could Change the World.

He looks at the risks and potential benefits of climate engineering, which include technical challenges and managing unintended consequences.  But the real challenge, he suggests, is in the political and philosophical realm, as we try to decide how best to manage our increasingly "artificial" climate system.

Related Links

- The Planet Remade - Princeton University Press
Economist interview with Oliver Morton
The Atlantic interview with Oliver Morton