A Californian start-up called Make Sunsets is making waves with its geoengineering approach. The company released a few grams of sulfur dioxide particles into the stratosphere last year using weather balloons. The idea behind this was to dampen solar radiation in order to reduce global warming. Make Sunsets wants to sell “cooling credits” in the future to slow down global warming and to help curb the consequences of climate change. The company’s business model is breaking new ground in the field of geoengineering.
The idea of geoengineering is not new, but it has been controversial up till now. Many people are opposed to the idea of intentionally changing the Earth’s climate. The guest of the podcast episode “Deep Dive” is Gernot Wagner, a climate economist who teaches at Columbia Business School in New York. He has been involved in geoengineering for many years and has co-organized conferences on the topic. He has also worked with David Keith, a well-known geoengineering researcher.
Wagner’s book “And if we just black out the sun?” was recently published in German translation. In the book, he considers the moral implications of geoengineering. Wagner believes that geoengineering is “complete madness”, yet he continues to research it. In an interview with TR editor Gregor Honsel, Wagner explains why geoengineering should still be researched.
Find out more about Make Sunsets and the classification of the procedure in MIT Technology Review’s issue 3/23, which can now be ordered from the heise shop. You can also read about it in the article “Cooling like a volcano” on heise select. This episode of the podcast was sponsored by the AXA IT community, which offers creative, empowering, and tech-based IT jobs on the green AXA campus in Cologne. Visit www.axa.de/karriere/it-stellenangebote to learn more.
