Digital's Analog

Listened to a thought-provoking lecture by Professor Daniel Schrag, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, and Dale Jamieson, Environmental Studies Program, New York University. They discussed global warming and the possibilities of engineering the climate to mitigate damage. More specifically, they focused on the ethical questions around such engineering. For example - should the scientific community take a conservative or aggressive approach to describing the dangers of global warming? If you were a meteorologist, how much seriousness would you treat a 10% chance of rain, versus a 10% chance of a category 5 hurricane? If you would agree that even a 10% chance of a cat 5 hurricane should be taken seriously, how about a 10% chance of cataclysmic global warming? What level of warning should be promulgated to the public?
Another round of ethical debate centers around potential actions to mitigate global warming. For example, spraying aerosols into the atmosphere might prove to be a cheap and effective way to reduce the amount of the sun's energy reaching the earth's surface. However, the long-term effects of deliberately pumping aerosols into the atmosphere are unknown. Although taking this action might be disastrous, not taking action could also be disastrous.

Listen to a podcast of the lecture and ponder these and other questions.