Does geo­engi­neer­ing offer a Plan B if nations at the U.N. cli­mate meet­ing can’t reduce car­bon emis­sions? The Glas­gow meet­ing has been called ​“the last best chance” to take mea­sures to slow down glob­al heat­ing. But we’re nowhere near to achiev­ing the emis­sion reduc­tions nec­es­sary to stave off a hot­house plan­et. We con­sid­er both the promise and the per­ils of geo­engi­neer­ing, and ask who decides about exper­i­ment­ing with Earth’s climate.

Guests:

Eliz­a­beth Kol­bert – Staff Writer at The New York­er, Pulitzer Prize-win­ning author of ​“The Sixth Extinc­tion,” and, most recent­ly, of ​“Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future.”

David Kei­th – Pro­fes­sor of pub­lic pol­i­cy and applied physics at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty who also par­tic­i­pates in the Stratos­pher­ic Con­trolled Per­tur­ba­tion Exper­i­ment (SCoPex) geo­engi­neer­ing project.

Kim Cobb – Pro­fes­sor of earth and atmos­pher­ic sci­ences at Geor­gia Tech, and the direc­tor of its Glob­al Change Program.