ABSTRACT

Moral hazards are ubiquitous. Green ones typically involve technological fixes: Environmentalists often see ‘technofixes’ as morally fraught because they absolve actors from taking more difficult steps toward systemic solutions. Carbon removal and especially solar geoengineering are only the latest example of such technologies. We here explore green moral hazards throughout American history. We argue that dismissing (solar) geoengineering on moral hazard grounds is often unproductive. Instead, especially those vehemently opposed to the technology should use it as an opportunity to expand the attention paid to the underlying environmental problem in the first place, actively invoking its opposite: ‘inverse moral hazards’.

摘要

道德风险无处不在。绿色的通常涉及技术修复：环保主义者经常认为“技术修复”在道德上令人担忧，因为它们免除了参与者采取更困难的步骤来实现系统性解决方案的责任。碳去除，尤其是太阳能地球工程只是此类技术的最新例子。我们在这里探索美国历史上的绿色道德危害。我们认为，以道德风险为由拒绝（太阳能）地球工程通常是徒劳的。相反，尤其是那些强烈反对该技术的人应该将其作为一个机会，首先扩大对潜在环境问题的关注，积极援引其对立面：“逆向道德风险”。