Battling Promethean dreams and Trojan horses: Revealing the critical discourses of geoengineering

Abstract

Geoengineering could counteract climate change by either altering the earth's global energy balance by reflecting sunlight or removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Geoengineering evokes various ethical and political challenges that are increasingly reflected in public debate and deliberation. Via a qualitative textual analysis of 1500 articles, we investigate discursive claims critical of geoengineering, considering what subjects are the most controversial, and what worldviews, values, and problematizations are shared by the actors subscribing to this discourse. We argue that the controversy about geoengineering differs, discursively, from other techno-political conflicts. Geoengineering proponents are described as reluctantly favouring research and deployment and displaying an unusual self-reflexivity, as they are well aware of and seriously consider all the technology's risks. Our analysis demonstrates that the discourse critical of geoengineering differs from and questions the dominant pro-geoengineering discourse in several profound ways with lasting implications for energy scholarship and analysis.