研英阅读高分训练：时文精选(3)

Hack the Planet: Science's Best Hope — or Worst Nightmare — for Averting Climate Catastrophe  by Eli Kintisch

Dangerous journey

For the time being, however, all of the existing plans and proposals are just “armchair geoengineering”, as Kintisch puts it. And the cast of armchair geoengineers is still very small. The result is that both books cover a lot of the same ideas and quote many of the same sources, and both have in-depth chapters about two particular options: fertilizing the oceans with iron, and ships spewing cloud-brightening particles. Kintisch's book, though, offers up more examples of geoengineering. One is a proposition by the nonprofit Ice911, started by California-based engineer Leslie Field, to protect sea ice from melting by covering it with sacks full of silicon beads. Another is a scheme put forward by atmospheric scientist Brian Toon, who proposes modifying coal-fired power plants to belch the chemical carbonyl sulphide at ground level, from where, Toon figures, it will eventually be carried up to the stratosphere and turn into light-reflecting sulphates.

Kintisch also digs deeper than Goodell into explaining the details of how geoengineering might work — and why it would be so difficult to do well. A reporter for the journal Science who regularly covers geoengineering for the journal's ScienceInsider blog, Kintisch likewise takes an insider's view in Hack the Planet. That's not to say Kintisch argues in favour of geoengineering, but that he writes from firmly within the world of science, and for an audience who's comfortable with science, too. He never explains the term 'hack' in the title, for example, which is borrowed from computer hacking and reflects the idea that geoengineering involves interfering with fundamental aspects of the climate to change how the whole system works. For this reason, scientists and other science-literate readers — especially those who already have some familiarity with geoengineering — will probably prefer Kintisch's book over Goodell's.

In contrast, Goodell's book takes a step back, presenting an outsider's view —unsurprising, as he is a regular reporter for Rolling Stone, the music and politics magazine. This perspective allows Goodell to be a guide to those who might reject the whole idea of geoengineering as far-fetched or crazy. “You don't need a Ph.D. in physics to understand the basic insanity of this undertaking,” Goodell writes, while emphasizing that the outlook for the planet is so bad that we have to think about these options anyway. Of the two authors, Goodell does a better job of taking the reader on a journey. Most chapters in How to Cool the Planet feature a central character, from geoengineer David Keith tinkering in his lab at the University of Calgary to environmentalist and scientist James Lovelock strolling the countryside around his quaint English home. By digging into their stories, Goodell portrays geoengineering as a human endeavour, carrying hefty doses of uncertainty, doubt and fear.

It what seems to be an odd coincidence, both books end by likening geoengineering to some kind of planetary gardening. Goodell takes some comfort in this notion, whereas Kintisch is sceptical about the idea that we can tame and control ecosystems, let alone the whole planet. To my mind, a better analogy for geoengineering would be industrial agriculture, with vast feedlots and fields of crops planted and harvested by machines. This system works for now, but its sustainability is increasingly coming into question. Similarly, geoengineering might appear to work well for a while before its dark side becomes evident. As Princeton University's Robert Socolow recently told the Asilomar meeting: “Be very careful.” Geoengineering comes with some strong warnings, and they're worth heeding.