The Ethics of Climate Engineering

This book analyzes the major ethical issues surrounding climate engineering. It focuses primarily on solar radiation management techniques for engineering the climate, such as injecting reflective aerosols into the stratosphere or brightening marine clouds. While such techniques might reduce some of the risks of climate change, they also raise ethical questions that are important to address. These issues include questions of distributive justice, the ethics of risk imposition, procedural justice in decision-making, and obligations to future generations. The author argues that there are reasons to think that certain uses of SRM are ethically defensible under realistic future conditions.