Geoengineering

- Blurb -

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 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. Despite those risks, he argues, 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 offers an inside view of the research already under way, and the actions the world must take to guide it in a productive direction. He lays out realistic scenarios of a geoengineered future and the pathways available to steer the world toward a balanced climate policy portfolio.