Geoengineering or Planet Hacking?

With climate change occurring due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, one solution that has been proposed is the technological one of geoengineering. This means that we (human beings) would "solve" the problem of increasing carbon dioxide by applying an engineering solution on a planetary scale. Various geoengineering solutions have been proposed, including carbon capture from the atmosphere and storage, ocean iron fertilization, adding reflective aerosols into the lower stratosphere, spraying seawater into the atmosphere to enhance marine clouds, launching giant reflectors into space to reflect sunlight, and so on. All these solutions raise ethical questions such as who decides which of these options is safe to pursue? what will be the impact of the proposed solution on people living in different parts of the planet, particularly on the poor? can a country pursue one of the options unilaterally? This article explores these issues and tries to bring a Christian perspective to them.