Experiment Earth : Responsible innovation in geoengineering

Experiments in geoengineering – intentionally manipulating the Earth’s climate to reduce global warming – have become the focus of a vital debate about responsible science and innovation. Drawing on three years of sociological research working with scientists on one of the world’s first major geoengineering projects, this book examines the politics of experimentation. Geoengineering provides a test case for rethinking the responsibilities of scientists and asking how science can take better care of the futures that it helps bring about.

This book gives students, researchers and the general reader interested in the place of science in contemporary society a compelling framework for future thinking and discussion.

This introduction to responsible innovation, as a new approach to governance, explains the broad sweep of technoscience that is brought under the umbrella of "geoengineering". The possibility of exerting control over the global climate introduces profound social, political and ethical questions. The book explores these issues through the lens of the research project SPICE (Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering) one of the first major geoengineering studies worldwide. The book introduces recent ‘experiments’ in governance, involving new conversations with civil society and others, to explain science-in-society and suggest new ways forward. It illustrates broader dynamics that are of substantial relevance to both wider geoengineering debates and wider science and technology governance debates.