Climate Engineering and Human Engineering: Environmental Discourses in the Anthropocene era

Ewa BIŃCZYK

Zakład Filozofii Nauki, Instytut Filozofii, Wydział Humanistyczny, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, ul. Fosa Staromiejska 1a, 87-100 Toruń, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The argument of the article is placed in the theoretical context of contemporary, posthuman criticism towards anthropocentrism. The text discusses two scientific projects of the Anthropocene era: climate engineering (also labelled as geoengineering) and human engineering. They were formulated as interesting but rather surprising answers to the problem of climate catastrophe: one of the most important political challenges of the 21th century. The ecological risk of climate destabilization is a good illustration of the thesis stating that the very notion of Nature needs to be problematized.

Reflecting upon climate engineering and human engineering helps to indicate the basic traps of environmental rhetoric characteristic of the Anthropocene. Both projects are pictured as ethically problematic, but typical of the paradigm of posthumanism. What is more, they seem to be articulated within the same axiological framework.

Keywords:

posthumanism, Anthropocene, climate engineering/geoengineering, human engineering, climate catastrophe