Happy Nice Mall

Intense social pressure to halt solar geoengineering research does not mean that all such research will end – it means that researchers who care about openness and transparency may cease their activities, and those that continue may be less responsive to public concerns. The public – perhaps private actors or armies – will be backed by funders who don’t care, and we may not hear all the findings. Autocratic regimes can lead; If we are not successful in phasing out fossil fuels, we may have to rely on their expertise in the future. And scientists in developing countries – who are already at a disadvantage to participate in this research – may do so even less if international institutions and philanthropists don’t provide funding.

Solar geoengineering research needs public funding through national science institutions. This can help ensure a few important things. It can sustain public scrutiny of research and produce the type of critical interdisciplinary research this subject requires, enabling the design of research programs in which social scientists and governance scientists are integrated from the start. Moreover, public funding can be designed to encourage international scientific cooperation. For example, presented at AGU and solar geoengineering on crop yield Including researchers from Norway, USA, South Korea and China. We do not want to stifle such cooperation, but to continue it.

Perhaps most importantly, national funding agencies can structure their research programs to thoroughly examine potential risks and benefits, and guarantee full attention to anything that could go wrong. Without this systematic approach, only a number of studies could be published showing the most excellent results and making solar geoengineering look better than it really is. Is this work on crop yield good? What does she miss? We need more work, not less work, to find the answers, and we need institutions like the IPCC to evaluate them all together.

No scientist is happy with the prospect of solar geoengineering. But we will need a pipeline of thoughtful, experienced people who understand both science and governance issues. If we discourage people from developing this expertise, we may not like the results.

Good science takes years to develop. If we delay research until the 2030s, we may find ourselves in a world that has made some uneven but insufficient progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with temperatures still heading towards 3°C of warming. Then we can’t suddenly hope to produce a rigorous science that will help us understand whether solar geoengineering is recommended. To begin with, it should follow the well-thought-out recommendations created by the committee of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. grappled with this latelyand now fund a modest, careful research program.

Holly Jean Buck is an assistant professor of environment and sustainability at the University of Buffalo and is the author of: The End of Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero Isn’t Enough.