December 7, 2011
THE LEFT EXISTS TO AMUSE US:
Author and Historian Questions Whether "Fixing the Sky" Can Address Climate Change (AAAS, 10/22/10)Amid concerns about global climate change, many scientists now support serious research on manipulating the climate by methods such as pumping sunlight-reflecting particles into the atmosphere. But proposed technological "fixes" for the sky are not new, according to historian James Rodger Fleming of Colby College.
For well over a century, scientists, military officials, and charlatans have tinkered with schemes to control weather and climate, Fleming told a AAAS audience, and the checkered history of such pursuits offers a cautionary tale to those who back what is now being called "geoengineering." [...]
Fleming said today's proponents of geoengineering for climate control need to look beyond the technical details of proposals. He argues, as he put it in his book, for "the relevance of history, the foolishness of quick fixes, and the need to follow a 'middle course' of expedited moderation in aerial matters, seeking neither to control the sky nor to diminish the importance of the environmental problems we face."
Fleming called his book his "first attempt at a tragic-comedy," an account of both humorous and threatening efforts to control the environment.
Posted by oj at December 7, 2011 6:05 AM
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