Geoengineering - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Details: Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00; Written by editor

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Andreas Malm Examines Geoengineering:
Salvation or Pathology?

“As capitalist society remains incapable of addressing climate breakdown, one measure is waiting in the wings: solar geoengineering. No other technology can cut global temperatures immediately.” So begins a challenging essay by Swedish writer/activist Andreas Malm taking a deep dive into the subject of geoengineering.

You'll want to read Malm's two-part essay, "The Future Is the Termination Shock: On the Antinomies and Psychopathologies of Geoengineering," now on the System Change Not Climate Change home page.

In part one, Malm dissects the fantasy that solar geoengineering will save us and warns of its potential to deliver a catastrophic global shock. In part two, he goes on to explore the deep-seated psychological disturbance that underlies our attraction to the magical promise of solar radiation management.

Blue hydrogen, carbon capture use and sequestration, biomass — technological false solutions to our ecological crisis — stream across our screens as velvety announcers reassure us that oil and gas companies have the will and the knowhow to steer us through the climate crisis. Greenwashers and climate scammers with direct ties to the fossil fuel industries are eager to grab center stage in policy discussions and claim as much of the meager climate-action budgets as they can.

There’s money to be made, and of course that's what drives the capitalism that caused climate chaos in the first place. Even more important, climate scams offer distraction and delay. But, as ecosocialists know, for Earth to remain a habitable home for humanity and other living beings, we need immediate curtailment of fossil fuel extraction, processing, distribution, and consumption.

Among the many "false solutions," geoengineering is an anomaly. It lacks major corporate backing, perhaps because there’s no money to be made in the short term. But some of the richest men on Earth, including billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, are investing in geoengineering research. A growing cohort of academic proponents — mostly white male scientists and engineers at U.S. universities — are getting us ready to accept technologies that would deliberately intervene in and alter Earth systems on a mega-scale.

Malm’s essay sheds light on why this is happening and what could go wrong. Take Me to Malm's Piece