So what sort of climate do we want? Thoughts on how to decide what is ‘natural’ climate

Abstract

As interest in climate geoengineering and the advertent manipulation of climate increases rapidly there is a tendency to overlook that we are already constructing current and future global climate through our use of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Any decisions on forms of geoengineering, enhanced or reduced GHG use will lead to a climate response and a global climate that is inevitably to some extent anthropogenically determined. It is therefore of value to pose the question: So what sort of climate do we want? In order to examine this question we need to look at a number of key questions. First, if we wish to remove any anthropological forcing of climate how do we determine and agree on what ‘natural’ climate is and will be over the next century? Second, how are the climate goals of GHG reductions/geoengineered climates defined by their proponents, i.e. what sort of climate(s) are we aiming to achieve and how have different bodies and authors defined these climates? Consideration of these questions has wider implications for how climate change discourses may change in the near future.