Abstract

Ethicists have raised a variety of concerns about solar radiation management (SRM). This essay investigates the specific worries associated with artificity: Does SRM transform the planet into an artifact? Should experimental SRM strategies be implemented if the consequences are unpredictable? These worries have led some to strongly reject SRM. But the conceptual framework used by environmental scientists to understand the scope of management interventions might offer a way to adequately defuse the perceived ethical concerns about artificity. Concepts from theories of scale, like discontinuity and panarchy, are discussed to demonstrate how the artificity arguments appear to depend on disputable premises.