Words of Warming

What Is Geoengineering?

A first-of-its-kind project led by Harvard scientists is just one example

Words of Warming is a new series from Future Human defining the language of climate change and environmental and climate justice.

Definition of geoengineering

1: deliberate, large-scale projects aimed at intervening in Earth’s natural processes, typically aimed at mitigation of the impacts of climate change through intentional alteration of Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and soil. The practice is still mostly in experimental stages and is controversial, with some claiming that it’s the only thing that can mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, and others wary of additional human-made impacts to the environment and climate that the practice could bring.

Last week, climate activist and writer Bill McKibben wrote about a first-of-its-kind geoengineering project for the New Yorker:

“This so-called solar geoengineering is the ultimate, break-the-glass response to the climate crisis…. The argument in its favor is that humanity has done so little to address the climate crisis, despite thirty years of scientific warning, that we might have no choice but to follow our injection of CO2 with an injection of sulfate aerosols. Think of it as Narcan, on a global scale.”