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Hello and welcome to the Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday May 23rd, 2024 and this is a special episode of

the excerpt. As the world warms and aspirations to reach net zero carbon emissions slide further

and further away climate scientists and engineers are looking at solutions that to some might

sound like they're straight out of science fiction. By taking on climate control with

technology, experts say geoengineering can be a tool to help mitigate and remove greenhouse gases from the climate system and may be essential to reducing global temperatures.

Joining me now to discuss these developments in climate intervention is Wake Smith, author of Pandora's

Toolbox, the hopes and hazards of climate intervention and a lecturer at the Yale School of the

Environment. Thanks for being on the excerpt wake.

Happy to be here.

Thank you for having me.

You've said that cutting emissions

isn't enough to solve climate change.

Can you explain what geoengineering is and why is it being considered as an important

tool to fight global warming?

Firstly, yes, I am a emissions pathway pessimist that doesn't meet I'm rooting for this. Emissions Pathway Pessimist.

That doesn't meet I'm rooting for that outcome,

but if I stare into my crystal ball,

hazy though it is, I'm afraid that the incentives

to cut emissions don't seem to be strong enough to

compel the world to cut emissions as quickly as we would need to do to avoid climate change. So I think most people have somehow hoped that

...