Holly Buck

An examination of schemes for large-scale interventions in Earth's natural systems--oceans, soils, and atmosphere--to reduce the adverse effects of climate change. Geoengineering refers to large-scale schemes for intervention in Earth's natural systems--oceans, soils and atmosphere--in an attempt to reduce the adverse effects of climate change, be it through solar radiation management, carbon dioxide removal or otherwise. Some critics consider this approach problematic as it is oriented towards technological solutions for global heating without reconsidering dominant economic and political structures, mitigation and restoration being understood merely in terms of such innovative fixes as injecting aerosols into the stratosphere. Its advocates argue that there actually is a way to build "a good Anthropocene," one that would allow for a socially and ecologically desirable future. In this case human action fulfills the role of Plato's proverbial pharmakon--both the poison and the cure.

Climate Engineering

What if the people seized the means of climate production' Climate engineering is a dystopian project. But as the human species hurtles ever faster towards its own extinction, geoengineering as a temporary fix, to buy time for carbon removal, is a seductive idea. We are right to fear that geoengineering will be used to maintain the status quo, but is there another possible future after geoengineering' Can these technologies and practices be used as technologies of repair, to bring carbon levels back down to pre-industrial levels' Are there possibilities for massive intentional intervention in the climate that are democratic, decentralized, or participatory' Is there a scenario where the people can define and enact geoengineering on our own terms' These questions are provocative, because they go against a binary that has become common sense: geoengineering is assumed to be on the side of industrial agriculture, inequality and ecomodernism, in opposition to degrowth, renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and climate justice. The World After Geoengineering rejects this binary, to ask: what if the people seized the means of climate production' Both critical and utopian, the book examines the possible futures after geoengineering. Rejecting the idea that geoengineering is some kind of easy work-around, Holly Buck outlines the kind of social transformation that would be necessary to enact a programme of geoengineering in the first place.

Holly Buck

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