Megan McArdle
10/23/2009

McArdle looks at the concept of geoengineering to develop large-scale projects to decrease the CO2 in the atmosphere. She says the scale of the carbon reductions that will be required in developed nations are massive. However, the political will to achieve them is very weak, even in Europe. Even if we somehow develop the political will, unless we also make some radical advances in cheap renewable energy technology, China is going to burn all of her coal, plus all of the oil we don’t buy from the Saudis, rendering most of our efforts moot. Geoengineering has to be an international undertaking or every country will just play to its own agenda.

McArdle has written for The Economist.

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