geo-engineering

Geo-engineering Promises/Threatens
Geoengineering May Require International Environmental Regulations
Several national authorities are assessing the potential need for national or international
regulations for safe development and use of geoengineering to address climate change and global
warming. A committee in Britain’s House of Commons began its assessment and is cooperating
with the U.S. House Science and Technology Committee, which is also planning to begin
hearings this year on scientific, engineering, ethical, economic, and governance aspects related to
geoengineering. This March a group of scientists will meet in California to set guidelines for
large-scale field tests of proposed geoengineering techniques––ranging from genetically
modified trees to absorb CO2, to spewing sunlight-deflecting sulfate particles into the upper
atmosphere. Some scientists argue that new environmental regulations should be established
even before field tests begin, due to potentially large geographic effects of some geoengineering
techniques.