Can the world really engineer its way out of climate change?
Readers are skeptical. Theyre also eyeing their recycling bins with dismay, dreaming of gardens full of native plants and cheering on the EPA. It was reckless of the Editorial Board to describe large-scale manipulation of the Earths climate systems as cheap and potentially game-changing. Moreover, the sort of diplomacy the editorial called for is occurring; it just isnt producing the results The Post prefers. The Editorial Board criticized the failure to adopt a Swiss proposal at a recent United Nations Environment Assembly. However, the board failed to note that at the same meeting, 54 African countries, with the support of Colombia and other Global South countries, called for a mechanism to ensure that solar geoengineering would not be used. Their objections include concerns that the continent could be used as an experimental zone whose people and lands are harmed first and worst, and worries that such mitigation efforts are just an excuse for wealthy countries to continue consuming in the same damaging ways, and at the same rate.