Peter Cohen on the end of climate change denial and the folly of geo-engineering: It was only a matter of time before a new record El Niño would end all talk about the earth getting cooler. Its only a matter of time before peoples lived experience and the increasingly dire studies and reports combine to make climate change an accepted fact in the public consciousness. The problem (besides all the time lost to industry-driven disinformation and political inaction) is that we will very quickly move from denial to talk of geo-engineering. Despite the fact that such planetary chemo is almost certain to produce unintended side effects and aggravate the other forms of biosphere collapse already underway (shooting aluminum particles or formaldehyde into the upper atmosphere anyone?), and will probably fail to address certain catastrophic impacts of carbon emission (what about ocean acidification, for example?), there is the disturbing fact that such solutions are almost certain to create a multi-billion dollar market for the very entities that have been knowingly profiting from current destructive practices while deploying anti-scientific propaganda and political patronage to protect them. If not stopped, geo-engineering will represent the final metastasis - to the pan-eco level - of Naomi Kleins Disaster Capitalism. Climate change is already becoming a business opportunity, and no good will come of it.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 17:18:54 +0000