Abstract
[Solar] Geoengineering an Unequal World: Delicate Ecologies
and Precarious Economies of Monsoon-Dependent Regions in
the Indian Ocean
Prakash Kashwan – Associate Professor of Environmental Studies,
Brandeis University, USA
The failure of global efforts to mitigate climate change has prompted
an influential group of Western climate scientists and physicists to
call for solar geoengineering interventions. They seek to spray a layer
of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere to reflect a portion of the
incoming sunlight away from the Earth’s atmosphere. Such a reduction
in sunlight would cool the Earth, an effect observed following large
volcanic eruptions in the past. However, both volcanic eruptions
and the proposed solar geoengineering interventions interfere with
global hydrological cycles and disrupt the Indian Ocean Monsoon in a
perceptible way. This article argues that the potential effects of such
an intervention cannot be gauged using climate and physical science
models alone. Solar geoengineering would intervene in a deeply
unequal world without a level playing field. The implications for the
region’s agriculture, food security, ecologies, and economies could
be enormous. Furthermore, it is argued that the deeply entrenched
inequalities of Indian Ocean societies cannot be fully understood or
analyzed using rational-choice bargaining models of decision-making
and human behaviors popular in Western societies. Instead, this paper
conceptualizes and demonstrates the utility of “diffused inequalities”
to better reflect the complex sociocultural context of the Indian Ocean.
In conclusion, this article urges the application of the precautionary
principle to assess the grave risks that solar geoengineering presents for
the most marginalized and vulnerable sections of societies in the Indian
Ocean region