Experiment Earth: Responsible innovation in geoengineering (The Earthscan Science in Society Series)

Experiments in geoengineering – intentionally manipulating the Earth’s climate to reduce global warming – have become the focus of a vital debate about the ethics and politics of science and innovation. This book explores these issues through the lens of one of the world’s first major geoengineering projects. The SPICE (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering) project attracted public attention by proposing an experiment to see if it might be possible put particles high into the atmosphere to cut the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface. Drawing on three years of sociological research working with the scientists investigating the idea of geoengineering, the book examines how experiments become controversial and argues that we should change the way we govern emerging technologies. The lessons of SPICE force us to rethink the responsibilities of scientists and ask how science can take better care of the futures that it helps bring about. This book gives students, researchers and the general reader interested in the place of science in contemporary society a compelling framework for future thinking and discussion. Experiments in geoengineering – intentionally manipulating the Earth's climate to reduce global warming – have become the focus of a vital debate about responsible science and innovation. Drawing on three years of sociological research working with scientists on one of the world's first major geoengineering projects, this book examines the politics of experimentation. Geoengineering provides a test case for rethinking the responsibilities of scientists and asking how science can take better care of the futures that it helps bring about.This book gives students, researchers and the general reader interested in the place of science in contemporary society a compelling framework for future thinking and discussion. Experiments in geoengineering intentionally manipulating the Earths climate to reduce global warming have become the focus of a vital debate about responsible science and innovation. Drawing on three years of sociological research working with scientists on one of the worlds first major geoengineering projects, this book examines the politics of experimentation. Geoengineering provides a test case for rethinking the responsibilities of scientists and asking how science can take better care of the futures that it helps bring about. This book gives students, researchers and the general reader interested in the place of science in contemporary society a compelling framework for future thinking and discussion. Cover 1 Title Page 8 Copyright Page 9 Dedication 12 Table of Contents 14 List of figures 15 List of tables 16 List of boxes 17 Acknowledgements 18 List of acronyms and initialisms 20 1 Balloon debate 22 2 Taking care of the future 42 3 Rethinking the unthinkable 85 4 Behind the scenes at the Royal Society 124 5 Open-air experimentation 150 6 Making models 180 7 The reluctant geoengineers 196 8 Reclaiming the experiment 219 Index 230