The Center for Science, Technology, and Sustainabilityat the American Association for the Advancement of Science cordially invites you to the following event: "Geoengineering Opportunities and Controversies in Science and Policy"
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
12:45-3:30pm
Please join us for a light reception starting at noon
AAAS Auditorium, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005
(use entrance at 12th and H)
The American Geophysical Union and the UK Royal Society have endorsed government funding for research on geoengineering, the controversial idea of deliberately tinkering with the atmosphere to remove carbon or exert a cooling influence on the planet. In late March, roughly 175 scientists from 14 countries met at the Asilomar conference center in California to hash out potential voluntary rules to govern research in this area. The House Science Committee and the U.S. National Academies also seem likely to soon call for geoengineering research. Given that the prospect of significant reductions in global greenhouse emissions is diminishing, geoengineering techniques that were once considered fringe science are now coming into the mainstream.
With government officials, NGOs and lawmakers increasingly interested in this new aspect of the climate issue, what are the policy challenges involved?
This public event will begin with an overview of the topic and an introduction to the associated policy challenges. In the first panel, experts will discuss how governments might construct a climate engineering research program with related ethical, safety, and regulatory requirements. In the second panel, participants will explore how geoengineering might fit into a U.S. and global climate policy framework.
Introduction Eli Kintisch, reporter Science, and author of Hack the Planet (Wiley, April, 2010)
Panel I: Constructing a geoengineering research program
Moderator: Eli Kintisch, Science
Dan Sarewitz, Arizona State University
Michael MacCracken, Climate Institute
Panel II: Geoengineering as a new element of climate policy
Moderator: Vaughan Turekian, AAAS
Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
Lee Lane, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Space is limited.
To attend, RSVP to: international(at)aaas.org
