Creating Global Norms to Regulate Climate Engineering
Friday, November 21, 20081:00 PM - 3:15 PM (Pacific)
New evidence that the climate system may be especially sensitive to the build-up of green house gases and that humans are doing a poor job of controlling their effluent has animated discussions around the prospects of offsetting the human impact on climate through "geoengineering". Nearly all assessments of geoengineering have concluded that the option, while ridden with flaws and unknown side effects, is intreguing because of its low cost and the ability for one or a few nations to geoengineer the planet without cooperation from others. I argue that norms to govern deployment of geoengineering sysytems will be needed soon.