Simon Nicholson

Simon Nicholson

Co-Executive Director simon.nicholson@american.edu

Simon Nicholson, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and director of the Global Environmental Politics program in the School of International Service at American University. His work focuses on global environmental governance, global food politics, and the politics of emerging technologies.

His work on climate engineering is informed by a deep sense of concern about the lack of effective response to climate change coming from mainstream political and social processes. At the same time, prior work on the politics of technology tells him that promising technological responses to complex social problems can too easily go awry, or can fail to fulfill expectations, or can be repurposed for ill-conceived or nefarious ends, or can entrench the very dynamics that drive the problems to which the technologies are attempting to respond. He brings, in other words, cautious optimism to the climate engineering conversation, with emphasis on “cautious.”

Among his publications, Nicholson is co-editor (with Sikina Jinnah) of New Earth Politics (MIT Press, 2016), and (with Paul Wapner) of Global Environmental Politics: From Person to Planet (Routledge, 2015).

Some Recent and Forthcoming Climate Engineering Publications

See also: “Climate Geoengineering: Coming Soon to a Planet Near You,” talk for TEDx American University, May 24, 2014.