Is geoengineering an answer to climate change?

Guests: David Biello, David Keith

Global temperatures broke records again in 2016 for the third consecutive year.  In fact, of the 17 hottest years since record-keeping began in the 19^th century, 16 of them occurred since 2000.  Some scientists, increasingly worried about this upward trend and a lack of political will to combat climate change, have called for more research into geoengineering – technological interventions to either block the sun’s rays or remove carbon from the atmosphere.  But this tinkering with Earth’s climate raises many concerns.  Will this research be seen as a quick fix for the climate and allow governments an excuse to do nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?  This hour, we’ll explore  geoengineering and some of the thorny questions that surround it. Our guests are DAVID BIELLO, author of The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth’s Newest Age, and DAVID KEITH, a professor of applied physics at Harvard University.