Introduction

'Global warming' and 'climate change' have proven to be commonplace terms for 21^st Century.  After decades of shamelessly pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we are now seeing an ever-increasing acceptance of the notion that such actions are, in fact, altering the natural function of the Earth's climate system.  This isn’t to say that there aren’t anthropogenic climate change sceptics, but there is a great deal of evidence that for many others, and myself, puts their doubts to rest.

Many consider this the dawn of a new stage in the Anthropocene, a not yet formalised, but commonly referred to, geological epoch characterised by the shear extent of human influence.  This verging third stage proceeds the industrial revolution (stage 1) and the great acceleration of the 21^st Century (stage 2).  The former saw the emergence of fossil fuel driven industry as the dominant form of human production for the first time in human history, whilst the latter describes its rapid expansion and intensification (Steffen et al., 2011).  This stage three is a time for reflection, self-awareness and most importantly difficult decisions.  We are faced with a future climate problem of unknown dimensions (the outlook is bad, but the complexity of the earths climate system dictates that the true timing and extent will likely remain unknown until it is inevitably too late), yet there is no concrete plan of action to adequately prevent, delay or manage either the cause, through mitigation, or the symptoms, through adaptation.

And thus I present to you the pressing need to really consider our options surrounding the highly contested solution of geo-engineering, and the potential it has to actively optimise global temperatures to what is arguably a more 'natural' state, or rather an artificial pre-industrial state.

Should we research and develop geo-engineering for future implementation?   

Through this blog I intend to explore what geo-engineering actually is and what it encompasses, the rationale behind its implementation, the potential environmental risks, as well as the legal, ethical, social and political repercussions of implementing, or even developing, such solutions.

To keep track of how responses change in response to the various topics to I'm going to cover, at the end of each post theres a chance for you to indicate how the post has influenced your opinion towards geo-engineering!