Page 241 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

panels and governmental advisory boards, had access to and helped collect
global climate data, understood the theoretical issues and their complexity, and
promoted and advanced the latest technologies. He warned then, and we might
wisely conclude today, that

[climate control] can best be classified as “interesting hypothetical exercises” until
the consequences of tampering with large scale atmospheric events can be assessed
in advance. Most such schemes that have been advanced would require colossal
engineering feats and contain the inherent risk of irremediable harm to our planet
or side effects counterbalancing the possible short-term benefits. 86

Based on the visionary foundation provided by Vladimir Zworykin and John
von Neumann, and the much more speculative megaprojects being proposed
at the time, Wexler’s prescient work “on the Possibilities of Climate Control”
clearly reminds us that we are not the first generation to be involved with or con-
cerned about geoengineering and places the current debate in the context of at
least half a century of continuous and usable history.

224 | fearS, fantaSieS, and PoSSibilitieS of Control