Hacking the Planet: How The Media Cover Geoengineering

The emerging field of climate intervention – a subset of so-called geoengineering – is beginning to make an impact on the world of climate policy. How the press, scientists and policymakers talk about this controversial idea will largely dictate how the public perceives it. And it will shape the coming policy debate over it.

I’ll review how press coverage has affected public perceptions of other emerging technologies like genetically modified crops. I’ll discuss the challenges I see facing reporters – and scientists – in communicating the scientific, policy and ethical implications of various climate intervention techniques. Towards that end I’ll point at examples of poor and strong coverage of the topic in the recent past. And I’ll discuss how scientists and environmental advocates have in some cases used misleading language or arguments to further their own ends.