Public engagement on solar radiation management and why it needs to happen now

There have been a number of calls for public engagement in geoengineering in recent years. However, there has been limited discussion of why the public should have a say or what the public can be expected to contribute to geoengineering discussions. We explore how public engagement can contribute to the research, development, and governance of one branch of geoengineering, solar radiation management (SRM), in three key ways: 1. by fulfilling ethical requirements for the inclusion of affected parties in democratic decision making processes; 2. by contributing to improved dialogue and trust between scientists and the public; and 3. by ensuring that decisions about SRM research and possible deployment are informed by a broad set of societal interests, values, and framings. Finally, we argue that, despite the nascent state of many SRM technologies, the time is right for the public to participate in engagement processes.     

The population of the Polish countryside: Demography and living conditions

Despite substantial rural-urban migration, 38.1 percent of the population of Poland still live in the countryside and the total numbers are only 0.9mln fewer than in 1946. At present the rural population is increasing and the rate of natural increase (though falling) is higher than in the towns though the productive age group is smaller. However, these human resources are not being properly used and the results can be seen in terms of economic inefficiency, low living standards and a high level of state support. Loss of jobs in factories and state farms results in welfare payments by the state and considerable 'hidden unemployment' on small family farms where profitability is constrained by inefficient use of labour. Poverty among the rural population is evident through a collapse of house building and considerable domestic overcrowding. However, conditions vary considerably across the country and this must be reflected in the economic and social policies drawn up for the new administrative regions introduced in 1999. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Living the global social experiment: An analysis of public discourse on solar radiation management and its implications for governance

Solar radiation management techniques are a class of geoengineering methods designed to reflect some of the inbound sunlight back into space with the intended effect of arresting further warming of the planet and thus counteracting global warming. In this article we examine current debates on solar radiation management governance, clarifying a number of assumptions that persist and why these require further scrutiny. Building on existing research we articulate a more critical role that the social sciences should be playing in public engagement with solar radiation management. We develop a deliberative focus group methodology that aims to open up deliberation on the technology, focusing explicitly on the kinds of world that its deployment would bring into being. Our findings, based on an analysis of public discourse, suggest that solar radiation management would be publicly acceptable only under very specific, and highly contingent, conditions. Given the sensed implausibility of these conditions being realised in the real world, we set out the implications for solar radiation management governance. We explain why solar radiation management was perceived as likely to create a particular kind of world, one with an increased probability of geopolitical conflict, a new condition of global experimentality, and major threats to democratic governance. How to bring these issues into solar radiation management governance entails an important but challenging role for the social sciences.