Geoengineering Essay

Agreements such as the UNFCCC (1992), the Kyoto protocol (1997), and the Conference of Parties (2000-2015) [1] all aimed to mitigate CO2 emissions; however, these agreements have still resulted in a record high amount, according to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre [2]. Consequently, many are skeptical that governments, despite the recently signed Paris Agreement (2016), will succeed at mitigating emissions . As a result, researchers have begun taking seriously the concept of Geoengineering; which is defined as the deliberate modification of the climate to circumvent global warming [3]. There are several methods of Geoengineering, but the most common involves the ejection of particles into the atmosphere such as sulfate aerosols

One major issue is that Geoengineering “suppresses” the effect of greenhouse gases and does not remove them, the goal being the deflection of solar radiation; this requires constant Geoengineering as aerosols would eventually precipitate out [5]. Simulations from PNAS as well as the Russian academy of Sciences both found that despite the effectiveness of Geoengineering, if the pumping of aerosols were to halt and emissions continued at their current rate then global temperatures would rise rapidly to meet the equivalent temperature which would exist if Geoengineering were not implemented [5] [6]. This rapid temperature increase could then onset several environmental disasters associated with global warming, but over shorter periods of time leading to catastrophe. Assuming that Geoengineering was to continue; other side effects are the slight change of sky colour hue [7], acidification of the oceans, ozone depletion, and a possibility of inducing droughts only to name a few [8]. Subsequently, the ethics of Geoengineering become problematic despite an increase in beneficence as it decreases global temperatures and can stop the rise of sea levels; the process, could simultaneously act in a maleficent manner by disturbing ecosystems and causing sea acidification. Therefore, Geoengineering’s ethics depends

For an actor network to be successful, all users must perform their role in order to achieve the collective goal and a failure to do so will result in failure of the network or as Michael Callon states, “In the absence of one ingredient [referring to an actor, translation or technical aspect] the whole [network] would break down” [9]. Assuming no major shifts in current governance, and that no governing body or enforcement of climate regulations would be created. Then the dominant actors in Geoengineering are most likely to be nation-states and large corporations [10]. The network places the possible control of Geoengineering under the nation-states all of which would need to participate. Large corporations would be responsible for obeying emission regulations in which they would need to decrease emissions in order to avoid such phenomena described by PNAS. Other actors such as citizens and individuals, with corporationsin this network would have to approve of such action and not institute their own Geoengineering