Geopolitics of geoengineering

The Fetish of Geopolitics

Gopal balakrishnan is one of the foremost experts in the Anglo-American world on the life and work of Carl Schmitt, and I am grateful for his response in nlr 68, ‘The Geopolitics of Separation’, to my essay on the thinker, ‘Decisions and Indecisions’, in nlr 67. Balakrishnan’s intellectual biography of Schmitt, The Enemy, remains, according to one eminent voice in the field, ‘the best English-l...

Ukraine: not only a matter of geopolitics.

Ukraine is once again at a political crossroads. Like many of the world’s troubled nations, its presentday borders refl ect historical events that paid little attention to the national identities of those involved, such as the westward expansion after World War 2 into what had been Polish territory, and Nikita Khrushchev’s unexpected 1954 gift from Russia to Ukraine of Crimea. Just like Russia ...

Gas Geopolitics: Visions to 2040

Geoengineering as Collective Experimentation

Geoengineering is defined as the 'deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth's climatic system with the aim of reducing global warming'. The technological proposals for doing this are highly speculative. Research is at an early stage, but there is a strong consensus that technologies would, if realisable, have profound and surprising ramifications. Geoengineering would seem to be an a...

Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering

In response to global warming, one suggested geoengineering response involves creating a cloud of particles in the stratosphere to reflect some sunlight and cool Earth. While volcanic eruptions show that stratospheric aerosols cool the planet, the volcano analog also warns against geoengineering because of responses such as ozone depletion, regional hydrologic responses, whitening of the skies,...