Solar Geoengineering: Reassessing Costs, Benefits, and Compensation

摘要

In their article 'Ethical and technical challenges in compensating for harm due to solar radiation management geoengineering,' Svoboda and Irvine argue that setting up a just system of compensation for solar radiation management (SRM) geoengineering 'faces severe difficulties' that might be insurmountable. At the same time, they contend, 'instituting a just SRM compensation system might be a necessary condition for SRM to be ethically permissible' (italics original). I agree that building a just system of SRM compensation would entail overcoming serious technical and ethical challenges. However, I believe that these problems are more tractable than Svoboda and Irvine appreciate, and that a proper concern for ethics demands that critics of geoengineering take the possible benefits of SRM much more seriously. In this brief commentary, I will consider the true severity of several of the obstacles identified by Svoboda and Irvine, and make the case that a comprehensive ethical perspective on SRM requires a more complete exploration of the potential costs and benefits of solar geoengineering.