Future of Life Institute Podcast

Kelly Wanser on Climate Change as a Possible Existential Threat


Listen Later

Kelly Wanser from SilverLining joins us to discuss techniques for climate intervention to mitigate the impacts of human induced climate change.
 Topics discussed in this episode include:
- The risks of climate change in the short-term
- Tipping points and tipping cascades
- Climate intervention via marine cloud brightening and releasing particles in the stratosphere
- The benefits and risks of climate intervention techniques 
- The international politics of climate change and weather modification
You can find the page for this podcast here: https://futureoflife.org/2020/09/30/kelly-wanser-on-marine-cloud-brightening-for-mitigating-climate-change/
Video recording of this podcast here: https://youtu.be/CEUEFUkSMHU
Timestamps: 
0:00 Intro
2:30 What is SilverLining’s mission? 
4:27 Why is climate change thought to be very risky in the next 10-30 years? 
8:40 Tipping points and tipping cascades
13:25 Is climate change an existential risk? 
17:39 Earth systems that help to stabilize the climate 
21:23 Days where it will be unsafe to work outside 
25:03 Marine cloud brightening, stratospheric sunlight reflection, and other climate interventions SilverLining is interested in 
41:46 What experiments are happening to understand tropospheric and stratospheric climate interventions? 
50:20 International politics of weather modification 
53:52 How do efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fit into the project of reflecting sunlight? 
57:35 How would you respond to someone who views climate intervention by marine cloud brightening as too dangerous? 
59:33 What are the main points of persons skeptical of climate intervention approaches 
01:13:21 The international problem of coordinating on climate change 
01:24:50 Is climate change a global catastrophic or existential risk, and how does it relate to other large risks?
01:33:20 Should effective altruists spend more time on the issue of climate change and climate intervention? 
 01:37:48 What can listeners do to help with this issue? 
01:40:00 Climate change and mars colonization 
01:44:55 Where to find and follow Kelly
This podcast is possible because of the support of listeners like you. If you found this conversation to be meaningful or valuable, consider supporting it directly by donating at futureoflife.org/donate. Contributions like yours make these conversations possible.
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Future of Life Institute PodcastBy Future of Life Institute

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

107 ratings


More shows like Future of Life Institute Podcast

View all
Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

26,384 Listeners

Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Conversations with Tyler

2,469 Listeners

Azeem Azhar's Exponential View by Azeem Azhar

Azeem Azhar's Exponential View

616 Listeners

The Michael Shermer Show by Michael Shermer

The Michael Shermer Show

951 Listeners

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas by Sean Carroll

Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

4,176 Listeners

Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST) by Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST)

99 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

548 Listeners

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal by Theories of Everything

Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal

21 Listeners

Big Technology Podcast by Alex Kantrowitz

Big Technology Podcast

513 Listeners

Hard Fork by The New York Times

Hard Fork

5,547 Listeners

Moonshots with Peter Diamandis by PHD Ventures

Moonshots with Peter Diamandis

587 Listeners

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

139 Listeners

Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast by Latent.Space

Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast

97 Listeners

This Day in AI Podcast by Michael Sharkey, Chris Sharkey

This Day in AI Podcast

229 Listeners

The Last Invention by Longview

The Last Invention

1,158 Listeners