The hubris of science fiction has always been that we are in charge. People have the capability to exert control over their surroundings and reorder the world into something more suited to our needs. But it also is marked by the kind of idealism and sense of possibility that we all need a little bit more of these days. I certainly know I do. As the possibility of any real settlement coming from the climate negotiations in Cancun ebbs away, perhaps it is time to take another look at geoengineering. Geoengineering is a kind of science fiction. It is the systematic attempt to either reduce the amount of energy coming into the earth-atmosphere system or scrub the atmosphere of excess CO2. While some of the ideas associated with Geoengineering are outlandish and seem more science fiction than realistic possibilities, the idea of intentionally scrubbing the atmosphere of excess CO2 is behind some of the existing proposals being debated.
