TILclimate

TIL about geoengineering

Episode Summary

When talking about climate change solutions, we often hear about reducing emissions and adapting to climate impacts, but a third option is starting to get more attention: altering the atmosphere. In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), MIT alumnus Janos Pasztor joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to explain geoengineering: what it is and the different technologies that are being researched. They also dive into the opportunities and challenges presented by geoengineering, and what difficult decisions we might need to make as a society.

Episode Notes

When talking about climate change solutions, we often hear about reducing emissions and adapting to climate impacts, but a third option is starting to get more attention: altering the atmosphere. In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), MIT alumnus Janos Pasztor joins host Laur Hesse Fisher to explain geoengineering: what it is and the different technologies that are being researched. They also dive into the opportunities and challenges presented by geoengineering, and what difficult decisions we might need to make as a society.
Janos Pasztor, an MIT alum, is the Executive Director of the Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Initiative (C2G2), which seeks to create effective governance for geoengineering; it aims to expand the conversation from the scientific and research community to global policy-making, and to encourage a society-wide discussion about the risks, potential benefits, ethical and governance challenges. Before his current position, Mr. Pasztor was the UN Assistant Secretary General for Climate Change and the Policy and Science Director of the WWF (2012-2015). From 1993–2006, he worked at the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

For more short climate change explainers, check out: www.tilclimate.mit.edu.

Links

To learn more, check out:
Mr. Pasztor’s work:

For more information on geoengineering:

More on absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (carbon dioxide removal):

More on solar radiation management:

An overview of climate change:

Credits

Special thanks to Tom Kiley and MIT Open Learning.
Produced by the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.