\nbook How to Cool the Planet<\/a>, an event
\nthat I’d like to mark by … taking a long nap.
\nI’m only a few days into the book tour, but I’m already exhausted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Not that <\/p>\n I’m not <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not surprisingly, the question of <\/p>\n Here’s my top five:<\/p>\n Lobbyists:<\/strong> \nCarbon-sucking entrepreneurs:<\/strong> \nEarly investors in albedo engineering companies:<\/strong> Manipulating the earth’s albedo (a \nGeoengineering conference organizers:<\/strong> The \nFundamentalist preachers:<\/strong> I’m ——-<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of posts from Jeff Goodell, author of How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate<\/a>. Here’s his first<\/a> and second<\/a> posts. And here’s an interview with Goodell about his book<\/a>, and an earlier interview about <\/a>Big Coal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n What does coal mining have to do with geoengineering?<\/a><\/p>\n Can a book on geoengineering change the climate conversation?<\/a><\/p>\n
\nI’m complaining. Being worn out by your
\nbook tour is a nice problem for a writer to have. Part of my fatigue is the result of a bumpy redeye from LA to NYC the other
\nnight; part of it can be blamed on a flood of questions from chemtrails<\/a> conspiracy cultists who believe that Dark Forces are engaged in a secret plot
\nto reduce the population of the planet by poisoning millions of people with
\naluminum particles dispersed in the sky. I’d like to have a sense of humor about this, but it’s hard enough to
\nhave a serious discussion about geoengineering without having to fend off the
\nblack helicopter crowd.<\/p>\n
\nbashing chemmies. I just want to talk about something more
\ninteresting: money. <\/p>\n
\nwhat role private capital might play in developing and deploying the hardware
\nto cool off the planet came up at the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference in southern California
\nI attended earlier this week. After all,
\ngeoengineering is the mother of all engineering projects. If we move forward with any of the various
\ntechnologies that are now being discussed (a very big if), there’s gonna be a
\nlot of cash flying around. An obvious
\nquestion: who will be the financial winners in a geoengineered world?<\/p>\n
\nRight now, because geoengineering is not much more than a twinkle in James Lovelock’s
\neye, nobody on K street
\nis pushing for Department of Energy funding of stratospheric aerosol injection
\ndevices. But in the future, they might
\nbe. Geoengineering could turn out to be
\nthe 21st century equivalent of industrial agriculture … or a
\ngovernment project that has a lot in common with the overwrought, overfunded
\nStar Wars missile defense system. Either
\nway, lobbyists make out. <\/p>\n
\nHere’s a simple truth: anyone who figures out a cheap, simple way to
\nsuck CO2 out of the air is going to make a lot of money. Not surprisingly, a number of scientists\/entrepreneurs
\nare working on it, including David Keith, a physicist at the University of
\nCalgary. Keith’s company, called Carbon
\nEngineering, uses a simple chemical process borrowed from the pulp industry,
\nand has attracted $5 million in funding from investors, including Bill Gates. Right now, the cost of sucking carbon out of the
\nair is up around $150 a ton, but if Keith—or anyone else—can cut that cost
\nin half, things start to get interesting.
\nAnd when it comes to geoengineering, CO2 removal is the one area where
\nthe profit motive is clearly lined up with the public good. <\/p>\n
\nfancy word for reflectivity) by brightening clouds or injecting particles into
\nthe stratosphere is the most dangerous and complex type of geoengineering
\nresearchers are currently exploring.
\nAmong the many questions: Who is going to end up doing the actual work
\nof brightening clouds or injecting aerosols? Maybe governments will be in charge, maybe a Richard Branson-like
\nbillionaire. Either way, the hardware
\nis likely to be built by private contractors, just as the fighter planes used
\nby the U.S. Air Force are built by private concerns like Lockheed Martin—a
\ncompany with a market cap right now of about $32 billion. <\/p>\n
\nwhole idea of geoengineering is so fraught with technical, political, moral,
\nand cultural complexities that, no matter how the future of geoengineering
\nplays out, there are going to be plenty of issues to fret about. So we may as well gather up and fret
\ntogether, even if we have to pay for the privilege.<\/p>\n
\nnot suggesting that religious leaders are motivated by money (or sex). However, if we start trying to deliberately
\nmanipulate the earth’s climate, you can be sure that some will see this as
\ntrespassing into forbidden realms, and they will raise their voices against
\nit. Imagine the war over abortion played
\nout in the stratosphere and you’ll have a pretty good idea where we might be
\nheaded.<\/p>\n