Earlier this Spring, 200 climate science experts and policy makers gathered in Pacific Grove, California, for ‘Asilomar 2′ (named after the first conference on bio-engineering held there in 1975), a pivotal conference for the emerging science of geoegineering. It was a meeting that many attendees regretted was even necessary.
2009 was a big year for news on geoengineering, where the word suddenly started appearing, or being heard, everywhere it seemed. This publicity for a new science that seeks to intervene on a globe-impacting scale to counteract human induced climate change has also been propelling a greater concern on the part of scientists and policy experts: that of public participation in the policy forming process, and the need for ethical guidelines for future geoengineering decisions, should they be necessary.