Solar Geoengineering and Democracy

Global Environmental Politics 3 (18):5-24 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Some scientists suggest that it might be possible to reflect a portion of incoming sunlight back into space to reduce climate change and its impacts. Others argue that such solar radiation management (SRM) geoengineering is inherently incompatible with democracy. In this article, we reject this incompatibility argument. First, we counterargue that technologies such as SRM lack innate political characteristics and predetermined social effects, and that democracy need not be deliberative to serve as a standard for governance. We then rebut each of the argument’s core claims, countering that (1) democratic institutions are sufficiently resilient to manage SRM, (2) opting out of governance decisions is not a fundamental democratic right, (3) SRM may not require an undue degree of technocracy, and (4) its implementation may not concentrate power and promote authoritarianism. Although we reject the incompatibility argument, we do not argue that SRM is necessarily, or even likely to be, democratic in practice.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Consenting to Geoengineering.Pak-Hang Wong - 2016 - Philosophy and Technology 29 (2):173-188.
Geoengineering and Non-Ideal Theory.David R. Morrow & Toby Svoboda - 2016 - Public Affairs Quarterly 30 (1):85-104.
Precaution and Solar Radiation Management.Lauren Hartzell-Nichols - 2012 - Ethics, Policy and Environment 15 (2):158 - 171.
The Slippery Slope Argument against Geoengineering Research.Daniel Edward Callies - 2018 - Journal of Applied Philosophy 36 (4):675-687.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-12-18

Downloads
1 (#1,769,934)

6 months
1 (#1,040,386)

Historical graph of downloads

Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Daniel Edward Callies
University of California, San Diego

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references