Geoengineering: the Gamble

[Andrew Lockley]

https://gwagner.com/books/geoengineering-the-gamble/

Out September 24th in the UK, November 5th in the US

Geoengineering: the Gamble

24 September 2021 (UK), 5 November 2021 (US & Canada)

192 pages

138 x 216 mm / 5 x 9 in

ISBN Hardback 9781509543052

ISBN Paperback 9781509543069

$19.95

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About the Book

Stabilizing the world’s climates means cutting carbon dioxide pollution. There’s no way around it. But what if that’s not enough? What if it’s so late in the game that even cutting carbon emissions to zero, tomorrow, wouldn’t do?

Enter solar geoengineering.

The principle is simple: attempt to cool Earth by reflecting more sunlight back into space. The primary mechanism, shooting particles into the upper atmosphere, implies more pollution, not less. If that doesn’t sound scary, it should. There are lots of risks, unknowns, and unknowables.

In Geoengineering: the Gamble, climate economist Gernot Wagner provides a balanced take on the possible benefits and all-too-real risks. Despite those risks, he argues, geoengineering may only be a matter of time. Not if, but when.

As the founding executive director of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program, Wagner offers an inside view of the research already under way, and the actions the world must take to guide it in a productive direction. He lays out realistic scenarios of a geoengineered future and the pathways available to steer the world toward a balanced climate policy portfolio.

More on Geoengineering: the Gamble

“Fear of Geoengineering Is Really Anxiety About Cutting Carbon,” Bloomberg Green Risky Climate column, 25 June 2021

Contents

Preface: Start here—But don’t start with geoengineering

Part I: Incentives

1. Not if, but when

2. What could possibly go wrong?

3. The drive to research

Part II: Scenarios

4. ‘Rational’ climate policy

5. A humanitarian cyclone crisis

6. Millions of geoengineers

Part III: Governance

7. Green moral hazards

8. Research governance

Epilogue: The inevitable gamble

About the Author

Gernot Wagner teaches climate economics at NYU, co-authored Climate Shock, and writes Bloomberg’s Risky Climate column. He was the founding executive director of Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program and served as lead senior economist at Environmental Defense Fund. His writings appear frequently in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, TIME, among many others.