Damian Carrington

I mean, they chose the site in collaboration with the Inuit hunters so that there aren't bears and seals in that location, but obviously you can do it on a larger scale.

There's also kind of microbes and plants and all sorts of things that you're kind of pumping up on top of the ice, and they still have to do the work on that.

Does it affect the ecology?

And then there's this kind of moral hazard argument, which is that if you are saying that there's going to be a sort of get-out-of-jail-free card, you know, our geoengineering will solve our problems, it will put the emergency brake on, we don't need to worry about

cutting emissions and things like that so i mean of course i put all these questions to all the people involved in the project they're really well aware of it but my experience having reported on geoengineering for a while is that the scientific community is split you know some people think that it is worth doing the research we need to know what is so dangerous that we should never even go near it we need to know you know how you might go about something if at some point in the future society decided that things were getting really bad that we might want to do something

I mean, certainly all the people involved in the project, absolutely clear that cutting emissions is the number one priority.

That's what we've got to do.

But this is about trying to research and provide information about other alternative ways of doing things should people want to engage with that in the future.

On a personal level, I really felt just blessed to be there because it's such a beautiful, kind of serene, amazing environment.

I also thought I was glad these people were there doing this work.

It's kind of a long shot.

Everyone acknowledges that.

Sometimes long shots work out and it could be really useful.

And I think, you know, from everybody I spoke to, not just the team themselves, but some independent scientists who were there as well, they seem to be going about it in a really good way, doing it step by step, responsibly, really engaged with the local community.

Doing my job is often like kind of reporting on the four horsemen of the apocalypse, you know, each one day by day.

So going to see something kind of positive and, you know, guardedly hopeful felt really good too.

My pleasure.

Thanks for having me.