Pandora's Toolbox: The Hopes and Hazards of Climate Intervention

Description

Reaching net zero emissions will not be the end of the climate struggle, but only the end of the beginning. For centuries thereafter, temperatures will remain elevated; climate damages will continue to accrue and sea levels will continue to rise. Even the urgent and utterly essential task of reaching net zero cannot be achieved rapidly by emissions reductions alone. To hasten net zero and minimize climate damages thereafter, we will also need massive carbon removal and storage. We may even need to reduce incoming solar radiation in order to lower unacceptably high temperatures. Such unproven and potentially risky climate interventions raise mind-blowing questions of governance and ethics. Pandora's Toolbox offers readers an accessible and authoritative introduction to both the hopes and hazards of some of humanity's most controversial technologies, which may nevertheless provide the key to saving our world.

As a lecturer at Yale University, Wake Smith teaches a world-leading undergraduate course on climate intervention, which forms the basis for this book. Smith is also a Senior Fellow at Harvard, writing scholarly articles on costs, aeronautics, and governance of solar geoengineering. Prior to his academic career, Smith served in several executive roles in the aeronautical industry, including as the President of a division of Boeing.

'Getting down to brass tacks, Pandora's Toolbox provides a balanced and sophisticated examination of climate interventions. The reader will take away a rigorous understanding of the engineering, economic, ethical, social, political, and international relations dimensions of climate engineering tools and an informed appreciation for how deployment of a broad range of tools can most effectively reduce the human misery caused by climate change.' Joseph Aldy, Professor of the Practice of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, MA 'A well written, accurate and entertaining guide to climate change and climate intervention techniques that gives readers all the keys to make up their own mind on the topic.' Olivier Boucher, Climatologist, Sorbonne Universite, Paris 'With careful explanations of the technologies, policies, governance issues, and ethical dilemmas involved, Pandora's Toolbox emerges as 'must reading' for all who seek to understand the pathways to a successful global response to climate change.' Daniel Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 'Smith's book is the first-of-its-kind textbook introduction to Carbon Dioxide Removal, embedding the topic in the full spectrum of currently discussed responses, reaching from mitigation and adaptation all the way to Solar Radiation Management. It paves the way for the societal discourse we so urgently need to have now.' Sabine Fuss, Group Leader, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, Berlin 'In the Greek myth Pandora was curious and she opened a box thus releasing evils into the world. Here we explore the contents of the box more carefully. In it we find tools useful for climate repair. This great book gives us a ray of hope in a situation where everything looks rather bleak.' Hugh Hunt, Fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge 'Pandora's Toolbox introduces the reader to climate intervention - if you haven't heard of this yet, you will, because the author makes a compelling case that managing a future world with climate change will need a bigger toolbox. Wake Smith has a remarkable gift for making his subject accessible.' Douglas Graham MacMartin, Senior Lecturer, Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 'At last, a realistic and unflinching view of the hard reality of climate choices that are coming. Smith's treatise is that avoiding a dystopian nightmare future requires levels of political courage in our scientific convictions not seen since the Second World War.' John Moore, Chief Scientist at the College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University 'An overview of climate change and the array of possible responses that manages to be simultaneously comprehensive, detailed, and accessible. It's jam-packed with the sort of specific, practical detail that is usually missing in such overviews. A valuable contribution and an impressive achievement.' Edward A. Parson, Dan and Rae Emmett Professor of Environmental Law, University of California