Public participation in science and technology:a proposal for global deliberation on stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI)

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2578914_(Table of contents)

Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) is a speculative climate geoengineering technology. If developed, SAI will work by spraying reflective aerosols in the stratosphere with an aim to cool the Earth to counteract anthropogenic climate change. Extant research suggests that SAI can possibly be an effective tool in decreasing temperatures rapidly and at a global scale. However, current scientific understanding of SAI is very limited. There are many uncertainties and risks around the potential benefits and harms of SAI. Despite these uncertainties and risks, certain actors from economics, politics, and science may push for the development and deployment of SAI. According to democratic principles, people should be able to participate in decisions that would impact their lives in important ways. Therefore, SAI-related decisions should be open to public participation. Future decisions on the development, experimentation, and implementation of SAI will depend upon earlier decisions about scientific research on SAI. Thus, public participation in SAI should start early on, comprising all stages of scientific activity. This thesis challenges the value-free ideal of science which sees science as a self-governing domain purified from value influences. It argues that value-laden decisions are inevitable in all stages of scientific activity and that social values should inform these decisions through public participation. Building upon Philip Kitcher’s theory of well-ordered science and the extant deliberative mini-public designs, this thesis proposes the establishment of a Global Citizens’ Assembly which would allow for informed, deliberative, globally representative, comprehensive, and legitimate public participation in SAI.