Clive Hamilton, member of the Board of the Climate Change Authority of the Australian Government and author of “Earthmasters: The Dawn of the Age of Climate Engineering,” (Yale University Press, 2013) believes “the genie is out of the bottle and is not going to be put back in.” The question now, he says, is can environmentalists afford to allow the supporters of climate engineering to dictate the terms of the debate? ”If environmental groups refuse to engage in this emerging public debate,” he asks, “how will they respond when geoengineering suddenly appears at the top of the agenda?”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fggBkz6a2ck&w=640&h=360]
You can read a Climate Progress interview with Hamilton here and see a Democracy Now! interview with him here. The WGC will also be hosting Hamilton for a debate with The Climate Institute’s Michael MacCracken, in Washington, D.C., in January, 2014.
Hamilton’s voice is an important one in the emerging conversation about climate engineering. It is also one among many.
The Washington Geoengineering Consortium will be posting more videos, podcast conversations, and solicited writings, in the coming months, from a variety of perspectives. Our work’s goal is to broaden the conversation around this important emerging discussion, and to give space to all perspectives- those of voices in favor of full steam ahead geoengineering research and potential deployment, those of voices entirely opposed, and the many important-to-understand nuanced positions in between. All of these arguments need to be aired and understood to enable a just, engaged and inclusive conversation moving forward.
