To imagine that
some kinds of geoengineering research can be quarantined from societal concern and demands for regulation, as Parson and Keith do, requires a belief that pure research can somehow be precipitated out of a social solution using the power of «objectivity» as the precipitant.
While teaching about this I got excited about doing more
research and ultimately, at John Hopkins, Simon Nicholson from American University and I decided that there should be a think tank that would try to ensure that if we do decide to look at climate
geoengineering as a society, that we include all
of the stakeholders... That was one
of the fears we had, so the purpose
of these
kind of forums are to ensure that other stakeholders like NGOs and the general public — who would be affected by these technologies — are a part
of the conversation.