Fighting risk with risk: solar radiation management,regulatory drift,and minimal justice

ABSTRACT

Solar radiation management (SRM) has been proposed as a means of mitigating climate change. Although SRM poses new risks, it is sometimes proposed as the ‘lesser evil’. I consider how research and implementation of SRM could be regulated, drawing on what I call a ‘precautionary checklist’, which includes consideration of the longer term political implications of technical change. Particular attention is given to the moral hazard of ‘regulatory drift’, in which strong initial regulation softens through complacency, deliberate deregulation (‘regulatory gift’) and the limited constituency of people with the skills to regulate (‘thin markets’). I propose the strengthening of civil society groups to keep regulators in check.     

A mission-driven research program on solar geoengineering could promote justice and legitimacy

ABSTRACT

Over the past decade or so, several commentators have called for mission-driven research programs on solar geoengineering, also known as solar radiation management (SRM) or climate engineering. Building on the largely epistemic reasons offered by earlier commentators, this paper argues that a well-designed mission-driven research program that aims to evaluate solar geoengineering could promote justice and legitimacy, among other valuable ends. Specifically, an international, mission-driven research program that aims to produce knowledge to enable well-informed decision-making about solar geoengineering could (1) provide a more effective way to identify and answer the questions that policymakers would need to answer; and (2) provide a venue for more efficient, effective, just, and legitimate governance of solar geoengineering research; while (3) reducing the tendency for solar geoengineering research to exacerbate international domination. Thus, despite some risks and limitations, a well-designed mission-driven research program offers one way to improve the governance of solar geoengineering research relative to the ‘investigator-driven’ status quo.     

The Panglossian politics of the geoclique

ABSTRACT

Solar radiation management (SRM) – a form of geoengineering – creates a risk of ‘termination shock’. If SRM was to be stopped abruptly then temperatures could rise very rapidly with catastrophic impacts. Two prominent geoengineering researchers have recently argued that the risk of termination shock could be minimised through the adoption of ‘relatively simple’ policies. This paper shows their arguments to be premised on heroically optimistic assumptions about the prospects for global cooperation and sustained trust in an SRM deployment scenario. The paper argues that worst-case scenarios are the right place to start in thinking about the governance of SRM.     

缺血性脑卒中患者发病节气与证型的相关性研究

目的 探究缺血性脑卒中发病节气与证型的相关性。方法 选取2021年天津中医药大学第一附属医院住院病历系统中4 838例缺血性脑卒中患者,使用频数分布统计法对其性别、年龄、发病节气、中医证型等信息进行分析,计算患者的发病日期对应的发病节气,然后分析缺血性脑卒中的发病节气与中医证型的相关性;使用圆形分布统计法探究发病节气、中医证型的高峰点。结果 4 838例患者中,男性3 233例（66.8%）,女性1 605例（33.2%）;60~69岁有1 814例（37.5%）,为发病人数最多的年龄段;阴虚动风证2 268例（46.9%）,风痰阻络证1 231例（25.4%）,两者为最常见的证型;清明为发病率最高的节气,总体发病节气无绝对高峰期,惊蛰为阴虚动风证发病高峰,小满为风痰阻络证发病高峰。结论 缺血性脑卒中患者男性多于女性,60~69岁年龄段发病人数最多,整体发病不存在绝对高峰节气,阴虚动风、风痰阻络两种证型的发病存在高峰期,阴虚动风证的发病高峰节气是惊蛰,风痰阻络证的发病高峰节气为小满,提示二十四节气内均可发病,重点人群要积极且持续的预防。     

Democratic authority to geoengineer

ABSTRACT

Does any existing single actor have, or could any existing single actor come to have, the authority to geoengineer? In this paper, I will focus on Solar Radiation Management strategies (leaving at least some Carbon Dioxide Removal strategies on the table). I’ll argue that global democratic authorization is possible in principle, and could be obtained on the basis of large-scale representative sampling. I present experimental findings from the Australian context showing that democratic authorization would not be granted, and conclude that if we can expect this result to generalize, then the deployment of SRM by a single actor is impermissible.     

Solar Trade War Ⅱ

正With another wave of trade rows approaching,what’s the way out for Chinese solar makers?It seems Chinese solar exporters have hardly any time to catch a breath.Just when they think their business is going to bottom out following the settlement of a one-year trade dispute with their biggest export destination—the EU,yet another storm cloud is quietly gathering on the horizon.