Public Strongly Disagree with Climate Engineering

A new study suggests that the public has a collective negative attitude towards climate engineering.

Climate engineering is the process by which the environment is deliberately manipulated to combat the ill effects of climate change.

Climate engineering is also being developed to counteract the increase in atmospheric CO2 which is due to the use of fossil fuels. Although CO2 emissions have decreased in the US and other nations, big countries like India, China, and Mexico continue to emit large amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere. With climate engineering, researchers can decrease the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere or control the amount of sunlight that enters our planet's surface to help slow down the rise in temperature.

Professor Malcolm Wright of Massey University, the lead author of the study, explains, "Previous attempts to engage the public with climate engineering have been exploratory and small scale. In our study, we have drawn on commercial methods used to evaluate brands and new product concepts to develop a comparative approach for evaluating the public reaction to a variety of climate engineering concepts."

Results of the study showed that the participants, who are from Australia and New Zealand, did not agree with the concepts related to climate engineering. Although there are some positive reactions, these usually focus on reducing CO2 emissions than on controlling the amount of sunlight that enters the Earth.

"It was a striking result and a very clear pattern," said Professor Wright. "Interventions such as putting mirrors in space or fine particles into the stratosphere are not well received. More natural processes of cloud brightening or enhanced weathering are less likely to raise objections, but the public react best to creating biochar (making charcoal from vegetation to lock in CO2) or capturing carbon directly from the air."

According to Professor Wright, it is necessary to hear out the opinion of the public when it comes to technological developments like these. ""If these techniques are developed the public must be consulted. Our methods can be employed to evaluate the responses in other countries and reapplied in the future to measure how public opinion changes as these potential new technologies are discussed and developed," he stated.

The study was published in the Jan. 13 issue of Nature Climate Change.

Real Time Analytics