A Case for Climate Engineering

by David Keith (2013)

This book, by a Canadian physicist who is now at Harvard University, addresses the critical topic of solar radiation management (SRM) - the original term for climate engineering.  Keith is right on many issues: SRM could halt or even reverse the polar meltdowns, there are no effective alternatives for reducing climate risks, and the world's efforts to reduce emissions have been, "... a phony war of bold exhortation and symbolic action." (p. 35)  His extraordinary blind spot is the short-term gravity of the GHG crisis. He refuses to acknowledge that runaway global warming is an imminent threat and therefore insists that, "... no sensible person advocates immediate commitment to large-scale geoengineering." (p. 147)  In my view this is a critical error.