Ways of seeing power and authority

Abstract

This chapter deals with the ‘political’ and the social aspects of climate engineering. It builds on observations made in other parts of the book by asking how particular conceptions of power and authority influence researchers’ view on the political feasibility and governability of climate engineering. Like the other empirical chapters in this book, this chapter addresses what lenses climate engineering researchers adopt in researching the politics of climate engineering and which selective reductions of complex questions they prefer. This chapter describes how certain political concerns arise from particular views on the climate and how these concerns coincide with specific visions on (global) politics and economic systems. Furthermore, it shows a debate within the climate engineering research community about what role they should play in the public debate as scientists. Crucially, that debate revolves around disagreements about what the role of knowledge and knowledge makers should be in politics.