Climate Engineering: Into the Great Wide Open?

Global efforts to limit carbon emissions are to date insufficient to prevent dangerous and rapid warming of the climate. If left unchecked, rising temperatures threaten disastrous consequences for human institutions and natural ecosystems, especially in the global South.  As a consequence, increasing attention is being devoted to a series of potential responses that were once considered taboo—climate engineering.  Climate engineering comprises large scale technological schemes that would either enhance sequestration of carbon dioxide or block out a percentage of the sun’s radiation. These interventions hold both the promise of great benefits and potentially greater risks.

This panel will consider some of the legal, ethical and moral considerations related to the growing discussion around climate engineering research and deployment scenarios.

Moderator:
Mark Templeton, Director, Abrams Environmental Law Clinic, University of Chicago Law School

Panelists:

• Wil Burns, Co-Director, Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment
• Jeff Goodell, Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone Magazine
• David A. Weisbach, Walter J. Blum Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School

Sponsored by the International Human Rights Clinic, the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic, Environmental Law Society, the Law and Technology Society, and the Human Rights Law Society. Recorded May 5, 2015.