Green Moral Hazards

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'.

Automated summary

Moral hazards, especially in the green sector, often involve technological solutions, and dismissing solar geoengineering on moral hazard grounds may not be a productive approach. On the contrary, those vehemently opposed to the technology should see it as an opportunity to expand attention to the underlying environmental problem.