Interview: Geoengineering the Planet

Once considered outlandish fantasy, the prospect of manipulating the planet’s climate to counteract human-induced global warming is now becoming a subject of serious debate. One of the most respected thinkers on the subject is David Keith, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment at the University of Calgary. In a wide-ranging interview with Yale Environment 360, conducted by author Jeff Goodell, Keith discussed the ethical and scientific dilemmas of geoengineering. Given the amounts of CO2 we are now spewing into the atmosphere, and the potential for large temperature increases, Keith argues that the world needs a “back-up plan” and that scientists must immediately begin research into various geoengineering proposals. By the end of the century, he predicts, humans will have the ability to manipulate global climate and practice what he calls “a kind of planetary management.” Keith’s sobering bottom line? “I don’t think that civilization is at stake with global warming,” he says. “But I think that loss of the natural world we care about is at stake.”
Click here to read the full interview.