Some opinions on geoengineering

It seems that you can’t look anywhere at the moment without seeing a report discussing the potential of ‘geoengineering’ our way out of climate change. Perhaps the most media impact was made by the Royal Society’s largely sensible analysis, which has been nicely summarised for SEED by James Wilsdon.
As one of SEED’s tame geobloggers, I was also invited to respond to this commentary , and you can read my thoughts here. You’ll see that I worry that the whole debate has become a bit of a distraction what must be our long-term goal of creating a truly sustainable civilisation.
I’ll use my soapbox here to add that some of the proposed options, particularly those that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, might potentially play a role in the medium to long term if we stabilise atmospheric CO2 levels too close to a potential tipping point for comfort. In the short-term, though – by which I mean the next couple of decades – we really should turn our eyes away from the shiny technological “fixes” being dangled before us.