Today we travel to a future where humanity decides to pull the climate emergency break, and spray sulphuric acid into the upper atmosphere.

Guests:

• Anthony Jones, climate model researcher at University of Exeter
• Jane Flegal, climate science and policy advisor, program officer at The Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust
• Kate Marvel, climate scientist at Columbia University and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
• Romaric Odoulami, climate scientist at the University of Cape Town
• Prakash Kashwan, political scientist at the University of Connecticut

Further Reading:

• A critical look at geoengineering against climate change (David Keith TED Talk)
• Research on global sun block needed now
• Toward a Responsible Solar Geoengineering Research Program
• Benefits, risks, and costs of stratospheric geoengineering
• Stratospheric controlled perturbation experiment: a small-scale experiment to improve understanding of the risks of solar geoengineering
• Climate engineering needs a clean bill of health
• Climatic impacts of stratospheric geoengineering with sulfate, black carbon and titania injection
• Transient climate–carbon simulations of planetary geoengineering
• Regional Climate Impacts of Stabilizing Global Warming at 1.5 K Using Solar Geoengineering
• Sensitivity of volcanic aerosol dispersion to meteorological conditions: A Pinatubo case study
• Messing with nature? Exploring public perceptions of geoengineering in the UK
• Asymmetric forcing from stratospheric aerosols impacts Sahelian rainfall
• Crop yields in a geoengineered climate
• Recognitional Justice, Climate Engineering, and the Care Approach
• Engaging the Global South on climate engineering research
• Evoking equity as a rationale for solar geoengineering research? Scrutinizing emerging expert visions of equity.
• Forum on climate engineering
• Experiment Earth: Responsible innovation in geoengineering
• Ethics and geoengineering: reviewing the moral issues raised by solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal
• Stratospheric aerosol injection research and existential risk
• India Should Demand International, Political Oversight for Geoengineering R&D
• Governing Solar Radiation Management: A Report from the Academic Working Group on Climate Engineering Governance

Actors:

• The Snowglobe Narrator: Brent Rose
• Lenny Haywood: Evan Johnson
• Farah Mousterian: Zahra Noorbakhsh, host of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim
• John Jacob Siwa: Joseph Jones
• Juana Aguilar: Tamara Krinsky
• Thor Surtr: Oliver Blank, host of The One that Got Away

Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky. Special thanks this episode to the Women Audio Mission studios, Maryam Qudus, Stephanie Lopez, The Potluck Podcast studio, the Potluck Podcast Collective and Quincy Surasmith.

If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool.

And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help.

That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.

Flash Forward is a critically acclaimed podcast about the future.

In each episode, host Rose Eveleth takes on a possible (or not so possible) future scenario — everything from the existence of artificial wombs, to what would happen if space pirates dragged a second moon to Earth. What would the warranty on a sex robot look like? How would diplomacy work if we couldn’t lie? Could there ever be a black market for fecal transplants? (Complicated, it wouldn’t, and yes, respectively, in case you’re curious.) By combining audio drama and deep reporting, Flash Forward gives listeners an original and unique window into the future, how likely different scenarios might be, and how to prepare for what might come.