You are asked to design a large bioenergy plantation in East Africa, out of land that is currently occupied by a few Masai tribes with a small number of urbanized settlements. You have a mandate to follow principles of sustainability in your design. What are the steps you would take to ensure that ecosystem integrity is ensured, that livelihoods are not endangered, and that the Masai, who tend to be nomadic, are not fenced in or out of the plantation area?
You are the United Nations sustainable engineering expert in charge of geoengineering policy. For purposes of simplicity, political expediency, and economics, you have been asked to select one geoengineering technology for global implementation. Your choices are: (a) lifting a large number of reflective aluminum balloons into the stratosphere to reduce incoming radiation; (b) putting a lot of iron into oceans around the world so phytoplankton will absorb all the excess carbon; and (c) immediately cutting fossil fuel use around the world by 50% in every country, no exceptions.
a. Applying relevant ESEM principles, which option would you choose, and why?
b. What are the drawbacks of each choice, and are they mainly political, social, economic, technological, or environmental?
c. Which option would you expect the developing country members of the United Nations to support, and why?