What we build when we say “Geoengineering”

You have likely heard some variant of the proverb that if you have a hammer, everything else looks like a nail. If you have a tool or a solution, then you only see the world through that lens.

I know that I don’t have to tell you the problem and danger with that.

A good place to start and test if you have the ability to see the world differently, is with language and words. Diving deeper into them and see what they can reveal to you.

I have done that lately with a concept that I didn’t like… Geoengineering.

Please, refresh my memory

Geoengineering is deliberate large-scale interventions in the Earth’s climate system.
These interventions are intended to counteract human-caused climate change.

All possible “solutions” are often categorized along two main avenues.
Either large-scale carbon dioxide removal or solar radiation modification.

I am not going to dive deeper into all possible ways we can do this and all the risk it involves. If you want to know more I can recommend this short video from Kurzgesagt.

Sometimes you need an extreme case scenario

It’s always a pleasure watching a documentary from Melodysheep.
The scenery, animations, and narration are some of the finest on the internet.

When the credits roll and after you’ve picked up your jaw off the floor,
you are left pondering what you have seen.

In one of his latest videos, he talks about “Sci-Fi Solutions to Earth’s Problems.”
And yes, of course, this video also contains a lot of geoengineering.

Plenty of different ideas are presented in the video. Just to name a few:

• Nuking the ocean floor

• Sulfur in the stratosphere

• Giant floating umbrellas in the Arctic

• Building a wall around a West Antarctic ice shelf

I’ve never really liked geoengineering. I still don’t.
And I’ve finally figured out what’s been bothering me.

It’s the narrow mindset.
It’s the “engineering” part.

One word can hide many layers.

Engineers put things together and replace parts.
They fix, repair, and build.

But it’s not the trademark of an engineer to
watch, observe, and see the bigger picture.

That’s what’s always bothered me.

Geoengineering focuses on one thing.
And it always involves doing something big, grand, and new.

It never considers the alternative of simply stopping... or doing nothing.

I mean, if your best solution to a problem is blowing up a nuke, maybe (just maybe), you’ve gone too far down one path and need to expand your worldview and see that there might be other tools, other solutions out there, that can do a better job.

Another word, another feeling.

The video from Melodysheep starts with the quote from Buckminster Fuller
”We are called to be the architects of the future, not its victims”

A powerful quote and I am all for the idea of creating the future together.

But notice the difference. We are called to be the architects. Not the engineers.
What’s the difference? A good architect sees and absorb a lot more than the building.

A good architect sees the surrounding, and the environment, and the people who will live and work there.

Yes, they go into the details of building materials, but
they don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.

And just taste the word, Geoarchitecture.
Doesn’t it create a different feeling?

How about Geogardening?

Does a new word really change anything?

Don’t confuse all this with the idea that you can replace a job description with a fancier expression to make the same job, or condition, sound better. I think that we should have kept calling it “shell shock” instead of “post dramatic stress disorder”.

That is not what this is about.

Replacing geoengineering with geoarchitecture dosen’t mean I suddenly approve of nuking the ocean floor. This is not a case of re-branding an old concept. It is an exercise in trying to see the condition that nurtured some ideas over others.

Experimenting with other words, might reveal new ideas, concepts and solutions that never stood a chance in the previous environment.

And we are in a situation where we cannot focus on one single solutions.

Modify the word, change your world.

You know that there is power in words and language.
You know how hard it is when you don’t speak the language.

Words also have a history. They carry a story.
They are tools in how we handle everything that life throws at us.

If we want to create new stories… we need new words, new tools.

If you ask me, that is how we build a better world.

By communicating and revealing more about ourselves.
By seeing more layers of ourselves and the world.
And by not blowing up nukes on the ocean floor.

Want to learn more about me,
feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn

Until next time!
Daniel - The Talking Bridge

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