Kelly Wanser on Climate Change as a Possible Existential Threat

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

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