Is Geo-Engineering a Viable Alternative to Our Current Climate Change Initiatives?

Geo-engineering -- the idea that mankind can intentionally alter the earth's atmosphere to undo some of the effects of manmade climate change -- recently emerged from the worlds of academic papers and science fiction stories into public discourse, thanks to the broaching of the subject in the recent book SuperFreakonomics.

The Commonwealth Club's Climate One program investigated this topic in a recent program, which included Ken Caldeira, the atmospheric scientist at the heart of the SuperFreakonomics climate controversy.

Cooling the Earth? SuperFreakonomics Authors Levitt and Dubner Say, Give It a Try

In November 2009, SuperFreakonomics authors and pop-economists Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner spoke at The Commonwealth Club's Inforum division, and they were asked about some controversial cliamte change sections in their book.

During the conversation on stage with Alan Murray, deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, Levitt and Dubner talked at length about their relationship with scientist Ken Caldeira and the question of whether attempts should be made to artificially cool the earth if attempts to reduce warming aren't working. Levitt says, "What if we really were in a jam, and we wanted to really cool the earth in a hurry, and we didn't want to wait 40 or 50 years -- is there another option?"

The complete video of their program is above.

And Caldeira will have his say when he comes to The Commonwealth Club's Climate One program on March 23 in San Francisco.