Geoengineering/Climate Intervention

The term “geoengineering” is used to refer to a range of techniques for deliberatively intervening in the global climate to counteract global warming. Solar radiation management techniques are a class of geoengineering methods designed to reflect some of the inbound sunlight back into space with the intended effect of arresting further warming of the planet and thus counteracting global warming. Carbon dioxide removal techniques, by contrast, aim to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through practices which attempt to address the root cause of climate change. The challenges that geoengineering poses for geographical scholarship are discussed, including analysis of the various contributions the latter can play. This includes, inter alia, analysis of geoengineering's distinctive relationship with nature, its challenges for debates on risk governance, its potential implications for contemporary political systems, its conditioning by wider economic relations, and the role for public engagement in deliberating a geoengineered future.