The Human Dimension of Geo-Engineering

-          Concluding Remarks      -

In the course of our symposium lectures were presented by

Samuel Thernstorm
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington D.C., USA

Ortwin Renn
University of Stuttgart, Germany

Ulrike Potzel
International Expert Group on the Preservation of the Earth system (IESP), Technical University of Munich, Germany

Peter Wilderer
Institute for Advanced Study, Munich, Germany

Braden Allenby
Arizona State University, Tempe, USA

The lecturers covered a brought field of science including philosophy, physics, engineering, risk management and governance.

Key messages

Development and deployment of geo-engineering might be un-avoidable but geo-engineering by itself will be insufficient in effect. A multi-sectoral approach is required to handle the highly complex set of interwoven elementary challenges which mankind is actually confronted with.

Our goal should be to develop measures which permit the 7, 8 or even 9 billion people on Earth to live a decent life within the limits of the bearing capacity of the Earth system.

Global warming and climate change resulting from carbon emission is just one of the problems to be solved. In addition, action is to be taken to overcome water and food deficiencies, societal and economic destabilization caused by rapid increase of population density particularly in urban areas, and loss of the self-regulation capacity of large scale ecosystems caused by interest conflicts between man and nature.

Communication between scientists and engineers, stakeholders, political decision makers and the civil society needs to be strengthened in order to facilitate the development of strategies that are needed to keep societies, economies and ecology in balance.