Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson says humanity can restore the atmosphere by systematically cleaning up energy-intensive industries and agriculture, reducing personal consumption and emissions, and removing or destroying greenhouse gases already in Earth’s atmosphere.
“We in wealthier nations will have to use less to reduce global demand for things that pollute,” said Jackson, a professor of Earth system science who joined political philosopher Leif Wenar on Feb. 13 for a conversation about the ethical implications of implementing climate solutions.
“Research on behavior and individual choices can help drive this change. We also need to adopt zero-emitting technologies for transport and for powering our homes with clean electricity,” Jackson said.
The event was part of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Dean’s Lecture series, which brings together scholars and thought leaders to discuss the frontiers of research, education, practice, and impact related to an area in sustainability.
According to Jackson, reducing emissions from energy-intensive industries will require governments and policymakers to implement regulations like carbon pricing. Support for policies and new technologies will also be needed from institutions, added Jackson, who is also the author of Into the Clear Blue Sky: A Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere (Scribner, 2024).
While he used to believe that “hacking the atmosphere” was a distraction from the real job of cutting emissions, Jackson said inaction in the 2010s convinced him of the need to develop technologies to remove methane, carbon dioxide, and other planet-warming gases from the air.
Jackson spoke about his work on methane leak detection, global emissions, and air pollution, sharing stories about the international climate advocates he interviewed for his book. He explored a variety of technological innovations and policy ideas, weaving themes of environmental justice, equity, intergenerational burden, and social acceptance into potential climate solutions.
He praised efforts to build better technologies, but said his experiences writing the book showed him the need to pair technology with social movements and behavioral research so that the solutions are accepted and adopted.
“We need to make ethics and environmental justice core tenets of sustainability teaching and research – as important as our groundbreaking work on new technologies,” Jackson said.
Restoring the atmosphere
Following an introduction by Dean Arun Majumdar, Jackson’s voice rang across the room as he opened the presentation by singing a Finnish fishing song.
“I wish drawing in greenhouse gases from the air were as simple as drawing in fish from a net,” Jackson said. “It isn’t, but nature provides some of the best and cheapest ways to mend the atmosphere.”
The song led into a reading from Jackson’s widely praised book, in which he learns about the effort to rewild Finland’s Linnunsuo Wetland from Tero Mustonen, founder of the Snowchange Cooperative.
Jackson read an excerpt: “Rewilding differs from traditional restoration in placing less emphasis on recreating what used to be, and more effort on creating habitats that will survive in a changing world.”
Into the Clear Blue Sky is a “repair manual for the planet, a how-to guide for restoring our air on a journey from climate despair to climate repair,” he said. Just as we have restored populations of endangered species, the atmosphere, too, can have greenhouse gas concentrations returned to pre-industrial levels.
Jackson laid out his vision for restoring the atmosphere by prioritizing the removal of methane “using microbes, trees, and factory arrays” at industrial scale. Methane is “the only greenhouse gas that we could restore to pre-industrial levels in the lifetime of anyone in this room” and traps 80 or 90 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the first two decades after its release. Despite its potency, methane receives only 2% of climate investments, he said.
Challenges and hope
Wenar, faculty director of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, opened the Q&A portion of the program by asking Jackson why he has spent so much effort on methane in particular. Jackson said ending methane emissions would have a more immediate impact on the atmosphere, warming, and air pollution.
“Climate change can feel impossibly large to fix, and I think it helps if we can break it down into discrete pieces,” he said. “The possibility of seeing a change in the atmosphere, I believe, could motivate people in a way that waiting for future centuries might not.”
The two also discussed an ethical framework for addressing climate solutions that accounts for decades of industrial growth by developed nations and inequities in resource use.
“Climate solutions allow us an opportunity to correct those historical injustices and reduce pollution for people in poorer communities here in the U.S. and in poor countries across the world,” Jackson said.
Climate change can feel impossibly large to fix, and I think it helps if we can break it down into discrete pieces.”Leif WenarFaculty director of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Societ
At the same time, global energy use raises complicated ethical questions, he said, such as how wealthier countries that have polluted the atmosphere can reduce their own emissions or support cleaner renewables to make energy available to countries like India.
Jackson said the most important climate question may be whether or not global energy use continues to grow – and convincing the world to consume less energy is an enormous challenge.
The Q&A continued with both pre-submitted and live questions from the audience, including what gives Jackson hope that we can make progress on climate solutions.
“I think people in community give me hope,” he said. “Again, the people in this room, the people here working so hard, the leaders in our school, doing everything that you do to make the world a better place.”
A song from a student
Another note of climate optimism followed the Q&A – an original song performed by Vivian Leilani Shay, a coterminal master’s student in the Earth Systems Program who is also an artist and dancer.
Shay said she wrote the song while reading Into the Clear Blue Sky for a master’s seminar.
“I was sitting on the train reading the book, and just felt really inspired,” she said. “So this song goes out to the optimism I feel with my Earth systems community.”
Dean Majumdar closed the program by noting the debt that people today owe to future generations.
“This is a challenge to our people, our folks, students, and professors out here and other places, to really address this in a way that is holistic, but at scale,” Majumdar said.
For more information
Jackson is the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Precourt Institute for Energy. Wenar is the Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities, a professor in the Philosophy Department, and a senior fellow at the Woods Institute.
This story was originally published by Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.