THE ETHICS OF GEOENGINEERING: PERSPECTIVES FROM ROMANIA

The aim of this paper is to present a theme situated within applied ethics studies, the ethics of geoengineering. Research on this subject has gained a boost in the last few years, when the inevitable debates concerning global warming have created a practical scenario, applicable in the future, a daring and provocative scenario: climate engineering through two types of technologies (solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal). The objective of this article is to briefly point out the main and problematic paradigms in geoengineering. I will offer certain recommendations concerning the passage from social opportunity to morality in geoengineering, based on these. First, I will offer a working definition of geoengineering, as well as a short approach of the two types of climate manipulation, to familiarize the reader with the specificity of this research domain. I will then illustrate the research paradigms (reductionism and scientific instrumentalism) which caracterise the process of laboratory development and practical implementation, trying to refer in the end to the inconsistencies and the moral principles that may be broken as a result of the introduction of such technologies in the natural world.