Thomas Schelling, a member of the Long committee, said in remarks today that simply funding some studies here or there in the government was
insufficient. There must be a single "locus of authority" on the topic within the government, he said. The State Department,
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the White House science office could each serve that role, with input from agencies doing relevant work. So, too, could the National Academy or a new
independent organization. "Then the question is, who do we consult with? Individual nations? The U.N.? ... Do we seek permission? Who's permission?"
"I think field experiments are very important to happen soon," said Schelling, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2005. "If [sunblocking
geoengineering] doesn't work, it's very important to know soon," he added. That's because policymakers must know if they could rely on emergency
planet-cooling methods if they were to be needed. But what would the stated goal of such a program be, asked physicist David Keith of the University of
Calgary in Canada. Setting up a research program needs goals, he said. "We can't go back to where we were [in terms of carbon levels] for hundreds of
years. Since we can't go back, where do we want to go?"
In a piece for Slate last week, I laid out two new obstacles to such an effort: Prominent Republicans
are increasingly expressing skepticism over basic climate science, and Democrats remain focused on passing emissions cuts (for which geoengineering
could be viewed as a distraction). In response to a question from the audience this morning, science committee chair Representative Bart Gordon (D-TN)
said that it may be difficult to create a dedicated federal program for geoengineering, given the sensitivities. (He said cutting emissions was the
first priority.) But he said existing programs may be able to devote resources to the topic and said a "coordinating committee" along the lines of the
National Nanotechnology Initiative could be useful. He then floated the possibility of an authorizing bill to create a geoengineering research program
in late 2012. (Gordon has been the most outspoken supporter of geoengineering research in Congress,
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retires this year.)
Given the thorniness of such issues, and the potential of public backlash, many scientists are concerned about pushing too hard to set up needed
research, said Long. "The tension between urgency and caution has played out in our committee at every turn," she added.
The Slate story linked to in this article was written by Eli Kintisch as part of a package of stories Slate published in conjunction with the public conference that this article covers. Slate was one of the sponsors of the event,コーチ 長財布, hosted by New America Foundation.
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