Geoengineering Revisited in the Shadow of Climate Crisis and Technocratic Control

[Geoengineering News]

https://philarchive.org/rec/SIMGRI

Authors: Radu Simion

03 January 2026

Abstract

Ten years after the publication of The Ethics of Geoengineering: Perspectives from Romania, I revisit the ethical and epistemological questions surrounding climate intervention technologies. In the meantime, geoengineering has moved from being a speculative concept to becoming a central element in climate policy discussions. I argue that this shift has not been driven by transparent public debate or broad scientific consensus. Rather, it results from a deeper process of normalization that increasingly portrays techniques like Solar Radiation Management as rational and even necessary responses to the climate crisis. This framing is rooted in a technocratic worldview that prioritizes control, modeling, and predictive planning, often at the expense of ethical inquiry, democratic engagement, and respect for ecological complexity. I believe that the dominant assumptions shaping geoengineering foster a vision of governance where preparedness is mistaken for legitimacy, and responsibility is reduced to procedural compliance. As a result, critical questions about authority, knowledge systems, and the future we choose to pursue are frequently marginalized or deferred. In response, I advocate for a different ethical framework, one that emphasizes epistemic humility, justice across generations, inclusive co-design, and recognition of multiple ways of understanding the world. Geoengineering, in my view, is not a neutral technological fix but a manifestation of modernity’s drive to impose order in response to planetary uncertainty. An adequate ethical approach must go beyond measurements and institutional procedures to question the kind of planetary future we are creating, whose voices are included, and which values guide our decisions in times of crisis.

Source: Phil Archive