This week, 200 scientists will gather in an attempt to determine how research into the possibilities of geoengineering the planet to combat climate change should proceed.
They say it's necessary because of the riskiness and scale of the experiments that could be undertaken -- and the moral implications of their work to intentionally alter the Earth's climate.
The group is meeting at the Asilomar resort in California, a dreamy enclave a few hours south of San Francisco. The gathering intentionally harkens back to the February 1975 meeting there of molecular biologists hashing out rules to govern what was then the hot-button scientific issue of the day: recombinant DNA and the possibility of biohazards.
The 1975 process wasn't perfect, but after a fraught and meandering few days, the scientists released a joint statement that placed some restrictions and conditions on research, particularly with pathogens. That meeting is now held up as a model for how researchers can successfully assume the mantle of self-regulation.
“And perhaps that was the final, foggy significance of Asilomar: a promise that the scientists who deal with the most fundamental of life stuff will not sequester themselves beneath Chicago stadiums or within blockhouses in the New Mexico desert -- that their work, at least as significant as the most subtle of sub-nuclear manipulations, will be done with care and public scrutiny," wrote Michael Rogers in a June 19, 1975 Rolling Stone article.
Organized by the Climate Response Fund, a new group created to support geoengineering, this week's conference is self-consciously recalling its famous Asilomar predecessor: All the participants in the new conference were sent Rogers' article.
A conference brochure summed up the popular attitude toward its predecessor, praising it “as a landmark effort in self-regulation by the scientific community" and attributing the lack of “dangerous releases of organisms modified with recombinant DNA" to the “effectiveness of the ultimate guidelines and procedures." It includes a black-and-white photograph of 1975 scientists meeting in the resort's hoary chapel (above).
They say it's necessary because of the riskiness and scale of the experiments that could be undertaken -- and the moral implications of their work to intentionally alter the Earth's climate.
The group is meeting at the Asilomar resort in California, a dreamy enclave a few hours south of San Francisco. The gathering intentionally harkens back to the February 1975 meeting there of molecular biologists hashing out rules to govern what was then the hot-button scientific issue of the day: recombinant DNA and the possibility of biohazards.
The 1975 process wasn't perfect, but after a fraught and meandering few days, the scientists released a joint statement that placed some restrictions and conditions on research, particularly with pathogens. That meeting is now held up as a model for how researchers can successfully assume the mantle of self-regulation.
“And perhaps that was the final, foggy significance of Asilomar: a promise that the scientists who deal with the most fundamental of life stuff will not sequester themselves beneath Chicago stadiums or within blockhouses in the New Mexico desert -- that their work, at least as significant as the most subtle of sub-nuclear manipulations, will be done with care and public scrutiny," wrote Michael Rogers in a June 19, 1975 Rolling Stone article.
Organized by the Climate Response Fund, a new group created to support geoengineering, this week's conference is self-consciously recalling its famous Asilomar predecessor: All the participants in the new conference were sent Rogers' article.
A conference brochure summed up the popular attitude toward its predecessor, praising it “as a landmark effort in self-regulation by the scientific community" and attributing the lack of “dangerous releases of organisms modified with recombinant DNA" to the “effectiveness of the ultimate guidelines and procedures." It includes a black-and-white photograph of 1975 scientists meeting in the resort's hoary chapel (above).
For more information contact All About Jazz.
