Lecture by Kemi Fuentes-George, Assistant Professor of Political Science

International and Global Studies Colloquium presentation “Consensus, Uncertainty, and Catastrophe: Geoengineering and the Governance of the Oceans” by Kemi Fuentes-George, Assistant Professor of Political Science.

States, transnational networks of scientists, corporate actors, and institutions in the climate change regime have known for decades that iron ore, when dumped in the ocean, can stimulate the growth of plankton. In the 1990s, a network of oceanographers argued that doing so could capture atmospheric carbon and fight global warming. This hypothesis then encouraged corporations to argue that the oceans should be treated as a carbon sink, and they lobbied the international society for permission to dump iron in the ocean and then sell carbon credits generated from this on the international market. However, after 2007, a transnational coalition of oceanographers and advocates opposed this agenda. This network argued not only that the benefits of dumping iron were scientifically dubious, but that doing so was ethically questionable, as it fell into a category of behavior called “geoengineering.” With this approach, advocates successfully convinced international institutions to implement a moratorium on iron dumping as a carbon mechanism, indicating the importance of norms and ethics to global environmental governance.

Lunch is free for current Middlebury College students/faculty/staff; suggested $5 donation for others; RSVP by 3/14 to rcga@middlebury.edu