The philosopher Immanuel Kant introduced the concept of “enlarged thought” — the idea that we can only truly comprehend the world if we are able to step outside of our own subjective framing of it and consider the experiences of others. It’s a notion that has great currency in the debate over climate change.
Climate change represents an unprecedented physical and technological challenge. But perhaps the biggest hurdle yet to be overcome is political in nature. Overcoming a planet’s worth of cross-cutting and conflicting interests remains a daunting problem — and one that has been made even more complicated with the ascension of a U.S. administration that dismisses most science on the issue.
We humans have proven our ability to affect an entire planet’s temperature, albeit unintentionally. Does this mean we have the ability to control that temperature? That’s the crucial question behind geoengineering — and it’s one that we will likely have to grapple with given our inability, so far, to curb carbon dioxide emissions by other means.
