The NY Times Publishes a Strange Anti-Geoengineering Op-ED

I encourage this blog’s readers to skim Clive Hamilton’s piece on Geoengineering which was published in the NY Times today in its Opinion section.   His piece is so strange that it is worth a carefully read.   Here I provide some direct quotes;

“We can imagine a situation 30 years hence in which the Chinese Communist Party’s grip on power is threatened by chaotic protests ignited by a devastating drought and famine. If the alternative to losing power were attempting a rapid cooling of the planet through a sulfate aerosol shield, how would it play out? A United States president might publicly condemn the Chinese but privately commit to not shooting down their planes, or to engage in “counter-geoengineering.”

In 30 years, if China keeps growing by 5% per year, this nation’s per-capita income will have quadrupled its current per-capita level.  China will be at least 80% urbanized at that time and will be fully integrated into the world trading market.  Famine does not take place in nations that actively import and export in the world economy because there is always some other nation happy to export to you.  In an urbanized nation, drought has costs but world trade breaks the link between consumption and production.  Professor Hamilton has not read my Climatopolis book.

“All of which points to perhaps the greatest risk of research into geoengineering — it will erode the incentive to curb emissions. Think about it: no need to take on powerful fossil-fuel companies, no need to tax gasoline or electricity, no need to change our lifestyles.”

So, this is the usual “moral hazard” point that any cheery thoughts about our ability to adapt to anticipated challenges posed by climate change or to engage in some geoengineering is “pure evil” because it mitigates the carbon mitigation imperative.

He concludes with the following warning about messing with Mother Nature;

So the battle lines are being drawn over the future of the planet. While the Pentagon “weaponeer” and geoengineering enthusiast Lowell Wood, an astrophysicist, has proclaimed, “We’ve engineered every other environment we live in — why not the planet?” a more humble climate scientist, Ronald G. Prinn of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has asked, “How can you engineer a system you don’t understand?”

The New York Times should publish scientists’ thoughts about geo-engineering.  When I type Professor Hamilton’s name into Google Scholar, this is what I see.  I see no academic work on geoengineering.  Instead, I see a scholar who publishes extensively on the point that the world must swear off the American Dream.

Reader Comments

5 Replies to “The NY Times Publishes a Strange Anti-Geoengineering Op-ED”

  1. Geoengineering an arising and horrific distraction from the immediate threat of bypassing 440 ppm–the trigger for unstoppable global warming. Just saw media coverage warning of iron filings in the ocean (again) and creating a sulfur shield in the stratosphere. The last thing those looking for easy answers need is a hopeful fantasy that there’s an easy solution to our precarious existence on this beautiful island in space. A fragile gift we cannot save with science fiction.

  2. Geoengineering an arising and horrific distraction from the immediate threat of bypassing 440 ppm–the trigger for unstoppable global warming. Just saw media coverage warning of iron filings in the ocean (again) and creating a sulfur shield in the stratosphere. The last thing those looking for easy answers need is a hopeful fantasy that there’s an easy solution to our precarious existence on this beautiful island in space. A fragile gift we cannot save with science fiction.

  3. People need to realize,aerosol geoengineering is BASED upon mimic of the stratospheric mist acid rain droplets super volcanoes get to stratosphere,,,they spread around entirely encompassing earth with the winds + rotation…that volcanic mirror STAYS up in stratosphere years,,,nowhere else does it stay up..goengineering in lower atmosphere with planes + chemtrails next to strato engineering mimic would be like trying to empty ocean with a spoon…Super volcanoes cause this “VOLCANIC MIRROR” phenomena naturally because they inject the STRATOSPHERE.+ they cause ice age every time..if it worked in lower atmospheres with regular volcanoes OR CHEMTRAILS which it doesnt…we would be in a never ending ice age 4ever…ONLY idea I can think of 4 chemtrails is so while they ARE geoengineering strato sulfates you will be busy following the chemtrails + not check the stratosphere…which would be simple enough …its working well to panic people chemtrails is,,,much like the Orson Wells war of world radio broadcast..IF YOU fully understood the volcanic mirror droplets aerosols stratospheric phenomena*acid rain technically, highly solar reflective, surrounds earth heat is reflected away, no heat comes thrugh temps drop* A stratospheric mimic of that phenomena would not even be noticed like in 1991 when pinatubo did it in tiny form, no chemtrails etc not even a blink….but if you did it just a little much more than pinatubo things would happen,,,like Cairo freezing+Australia in its summer…..hmmmmm…IF theres a volcanic mirror up there right now in strato but everyone chases chemtrails, when it eventually clears there will be no proof,,,,you only need about 2 years of distraction…..peace…..juith woolworth donahue

    PSS the pyramid of egypt was created mirrored, IF you restore the mirror casing*note my avatar on fb or here if it shows* you SEE that super volcanic mirror science in pictogram….i believe its geoengineering instruction to mimic super volcanic mirror to cool earth…+ no matter where u r or what language you speak, if restored it looks like a super volcanic mirror in middle of desert from the time of Moses from anywhere on earth! see my fb….oh + id quit chasing those chemtrails + start checking the stratosphere FAST… OR PRIVATE FACTIONS WILL CONTROL YOUR PLANET 4EVER

Comments are closed.

About Matthew

Matthew E. Kahn is a Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment, the Department of Economics, and the Department of Public Policy. He is a research associate at t…

READ more

About Matthew

Matthew E. Kahn is a Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment, the Department of Economics, and the Department of Public Policy. He is a research associate at t…

READ more