Published in ERW, 13 Jul 2016
People spend more money on climate-change mitigation if they have been given impartial information about geoengineering the climate with aerosol particles, scientists in Germany have found.
The team gave 650 people 10 euros to donate to climate-change mitigation projects if they wished; those who had been told that aerosol injection could partly address the climate-change problem donated more. This suggests, contrary to predictions, that giving people information about aerosol injection – a controversial method of geoengineering the climate – does not necessarily affect their commitment to mitigation.
“This is the first indication that people will not easily accept aerosol injection as a quick fix, be drawn into conclusions and reduce their mitigation efforts, which is often suggested,” said Christine Merk of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. “People still prefer mitigation, especially when they are presented with aerosol injection as an alternative way of addressing climate change.” […]
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