Solar Radiation Management
Reflecting a small share of sunlight could reduce warming while leaving its causes in place.
The Mechanism: Solar radiation management refers to proposed methods that would reflect a small portion of incoming sunlight to lower global temperatures. It would not remove greenhouse gases or address ocean acidification, and no global deployment is in place.
The Philosophical Pivot: The idea offers intervention at planetary scale without resolving who has authority to act. A measure that changes climate risks for everyone could create conflicts among regions with different vulnerabilities.
The Horizon: Even a temporary temperature effect could create dependencies and difficult transitions if emissions continue. Questions of monitoring, consent, compensation, and stopping require international legitimacy, not only technical capacity.
Research can clarify uncertainties, but it cannot decide whose risks are acceptable. Treating a proposed intervention as a substitute for emissions reduction could deepen moral hazard.
The planet is shared, but the power to alter it is not; that imbalance is part of the technology's ethical core.
A planetary thermostat would have no neutral hand on the dial.
Who should have authority to alter a climate shared by people who never agreed to the intervention?