A Serious Look at Geoengineering

Possible responses to the problem of anthropogenic climate change fall into three broad categories: abatement of human impacts by reducing the climate forcings, adaptation to reduce the impact of altered climate on human systems, and deliberate intervention in the climate system to change the effects of anthropogenic forcing—geoengineering. Recent reports from the National Academy of Sciences [1991] and the Office of Technology Assessment [1991] aimed to provide a comprehensive look at possible responses to climate change. While they included geoengineering options, they failed to consider them systematically. We present the beginnings of a more systematic analysis and urge a balanced research program on geoengineering.