This week in Peru, scientists and experts would gather together to talk about possible geoengineering solutions for climate change. The meeting would be managed by IPCC as a part of the process of preparing the fifth assessment report.
They define GeoEngineering as the deliberate large-scale manipulation of the planetary environment and a potential strategy to counteract anthropogenic climate change.
If you take a look at their proposal here, you would see that they are thinking and talking about increasing the earth surface reflectivity by brightening human structures or covering deserts with reflective material.
Honestly, I am not sure whether I should congratulate their innovative and brave thoughts or I should regret for the point that they are missing which has the same letters but a totally different idea: EgoEngineering!
As humans, we are causing trouble and problem for the world we are living in. We are polluting our environment, we are emitting GHGs in the air, we are consuming the resources very fast and we are ignoring the rules, the capacities, and the limits that the earth has in providing a safe and proper environment for us, all of us.
And now, as things are not going as well as we were expecting, instead of changing ourselves, our desires, and demands and behaviors and habits, we want to changes the planet. And believe me, we are not doing this to keep our welfare as what it is today. We want to GeoEngineer the planet because we want to explore more, consume more, waste more and pollute more.
But this is not the solution. Maybe we should re-order the first three letters of geoengineering and type it as EgoEngineering. Maybe we should change and engineer ourselves. Maybe the easier and even cheaper solution is to reach to an agreement about CO2 mitigation. Maybe. Maybe a faster and more effective option is to be more productive and less dependent on fossil fuels. Maybe. And maybe we should reconsider our values and re-arrange our priorities. Maybe we should Ego-Engineer to understand the world better and find a more sustainable way of living.
We don't want to change, and we are happy to change everything to stay unchanged. That doesn't sound fair, does it?