Science Media- Climate Change, Our Literal World at Stake

When The Day After Tomorrow Has Come:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/science/29scibks.html

If we choose to structure the episodes based on concrete disasters in our world, I think it will be important to have a basic understanding of them and what the experts in the field think of as actual responses, to which our responses/philosophers would be in contrast. The following book review explores one set of possible responses (innovative/technological) to environmental climate change and inhering risks in that response (which may have resonances for responses we would imagine).

Excerpt 1:
For Dr. Fleming, whose book is a scholarly look at the history of weather modification and similar efforts, geoengineering proposals are “untested, untestable and dangerous beyond belief.” He fits them neatly into what he calls “a long tradition of imaginative and speculative literature involving the ‘control’ of nature.” But, as he notes, the ideas have drawn favor especially among conservatives and libertarians who look for technological rather than regulatory solutions for climate change.

Excerpt 2:
In his discussion of geoengineering in “The Climate Fix,” Dr. Pielke argues that research into geoengineering techniques could advance scientists’ understanding of the action of Earth’s climate. But if the techniques are put into effect, “unintended consequences are certain,” he writes, adding “there is no practice planet earth on which such technologies can be implemented, evaluated, and improved.”