Giant mirrors in the desert to reflect sunlight back into space, pumping the worldwide atmosphere full of cooling gasses, or what about an artificial nuclear winter to cool down the earth? These are but a few ideas that have been proposed to reverse the climate disaster we find ourselves in. Could this geoengineering, as it is called, be part of the solution to climate change we so desperately need? Or are these proposals just too far-fetched and (possibly) harmful?
Geoengineering refers to a host of possible technical solutions to mitigate climate change by exerting control over the climate through large-scale measures. In this lecture, dr. Jeroen Oomen and dr. Isabelle Steinke will explain to us what geoengineering entails exactly and take us through examples of this technique. Is it going to be a miraculous solution to our problems, meaning that we can keep polluting? Or is geoengineering nothing but an idle hope, slowing down our actual progress when it comes to combatting global warming?
Dr. Jeroen Oomen is assistant professor at the Urban Futures Studio of Utrecht University, where he focuses on the social, cultural, and scientific practices that create societies' perceptions of the future. His research primarily centers on topics related to climate policy, geoengineering, and social theory, with a particular emphasis on matters pertaining to sustainability. He published a book on geoengineering in 2021 called Imagining Climate Engineering: Dreaming the Designer Climate.
Dr. Isabelle Steinke is an assistant professor at the TU Delft Faculty Of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. She is an atmospheric scientist with a background in cloud microphysics and currently focuses on interdisciplinary research questions related to climate engineering.
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Date: Monday 3 April 2023
Time: 17.00 – 18.00 (Doors open: 16.45)
Location: Polak 1-20
Entrance: Free- Related links
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