Managing the carbon rift: Social metabolism, geoengineering and climate capitalism

The idea that climate geoengineering could be used in conjunction to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic climate change has gained credence in both scientific and policy circles. Because of the inherent uncertainty about the risks involved, debates on the topic abound. Scientists agree that more research is needed on both the potential impacts of geoengineering on humans and ecosystems, and the governance mechanisms that would be the most appropriate for conducting field research and for eventual deployment. Despite an explosion of publications in the last decade or so, properly sociological analysis is still lacking. In this paper, I develop an approach to geoengineering based on metabolic rift theory to consider the broad political economic context in which geoengineering technologies are being developed. I argue first that the eventual recourse to such last resort approaches is a consequence of the ever expanding carbon rift created by capitalism and the growth imperative it entails. Second, we discuss how geoengineering technologies would likely be deployed within the context of the neoliberal climate policy regime that is currently in place and that relies heavily on carbon markets. I outline some of the foreseeable consequences of tying geoengineering to carbon markets on greenhouse gas emissions reduction and on the possibility of exerting democratic control over the technologies themselves.