Can humans manage the atmosphere?

But the failure of recent efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions has built some momentum toward expanding research on such options. One step on that road was a big meeting on geoengineering science and policy questions at the Asilomar Conference Center in northern California last week. The result is intensifying debate over what is still widely viewed as a last-ditch option should worst-case projections of warming pan out. The questions transcend simple worries about environmental impacts. The biggest, perhaps, could be one of global diplomacy. Who gets to set the Earth’s thermostat? Russia and Maldives would probably have entirely different views.

A few environmental groups — including the Natural Resources Defense Council and Friends of the Earth (U.K.) [pdf] have started to express conditional support for some of this research. Many environmentalists still oppose such techno-fixes as either bound to produce unintended consequences or a cop-out that could reduce pressure to stop emissions at the source.