Is the aerosol strategy intergenerationally unethical?

The Gist: Putting reflective aerosols high into the atmosphere to slow climate change is too risky and not cost effective.

That’s Climate Central describing the core conclusions of the Climatic Change paper “The economics (or lack thereof) of aerosol geoengineering,” (full paper online here).

This study would seem to support the view that if you don’t do aggressive greenhouse mitigation starting now, you pretty much take aerosol geo-engineering off the table as a very limited (but still dubious) add-on strategy “” as even geo-engineering experts like climatologist Ken Caldeira have made clear.

What’s nice about this study is that it doesn’t just do an economic analysis, but also discusses intergenerational ethics.  I’ll excerpt the study itself at length — after the full Climate Central summary:

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This afternoon, hundreds of youth climate activists shut down a BP gas station with people power. The flash mob contrasted a joyous and cheerful celebration of the beauty of the Gulf Coast — beach balls, beach chairs, and palm trees — with the devastation caused by the BP oil disaster. In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress during the protest, Tulane University student Stephanie Stefanski explains why she drove 20 hours from Louisiana to the 2011 Power Shift conference to help to shut down BP and make them pay to restore the Gulf:

There’s still oil on our coast. I saw it two weeks ago, I touched it, I smelled it. It’s still causing massive die offs with dolphins, sea turtles, crustaceans and fish. It’s causing public health issues. I’m here to tell everyone this problem is still here one year later. The beaches are still oiled. They’re trying to “make it right” by paying off the community, but it’s still destroyed. The fisheries are damaged. There’s no money in, people still don’t trust the seafood. They’re not paying up for their damages.

Stefanski is with the Gulf Restoration Network, which has a national petition to hold President Obama accountable and implement the Oil Spill Commission recommendations to ensure Louisiana and its sister states come back stronger.

One year after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, sending 11 men to a fiery grave, BP’s crude and dispersants are still impacting the Gulf and its communities. BP has scored a $10 billion tax refund for its part in cleaning up its toxic crime. On Tax Day, Monday, April 18th, the Gulf Coast Power Shift contingent will take action in front of BP’s lobbying headquarters, and meet with their members of Congress to demand that Congress and the President act now to stop the crisis on America’s Gulf Coast, and make BP truly pay for their disaster.

“Don’t forget the BP oil disaster!” Stefanski concluded.

In a passionate keynote address, green jobs leader Van Jones exhorted the 10,000 youth climate activists at the Power Shift conference in Washington DC to “shift the power” and lead the clean power revolution.  Brad Johnson has the story.

Van Jones argued that both parties need to be held accountable for their failures, and that activists must explain that the climate movement isn’t just about “hippie power” but that it is a vision of liberty and justice for all.

He had harsh words for the national political establishment.

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In total, the Ryan-Republican budget proposal would strip more than $1.4 trillion from public investments in education, infrastructure, and science and technology that create a foundation to support private investments“¦.  By disinvesting in the sources of productivity and competitiveness to pay for tax cuts for the rich, the Ryan-Republican budget plan puts little value on America’s economic future.

Friday, the House approved “” by a vote of 235 to 193 “” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) radical budget.  CAP economist Adam Hersh and research associate Sarah Ayres explains its devastating impact on core investments in this CAP cross-post with charts.

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Guest blogger, Jeff Mann, online director of Energy Action Coalition, via WonkRoom.

Friday at the White House, President Obama met with twelve young leaders from across the country that are in town for Power Shift 2011, the youth clean energy and climate summit being attended by over 10,000 people.

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