There are many organizations and institutions that are involved, either directly or indirectly, with geoengineering. Of these groups, some support the concept of geoengineering, some are against, and some advocate more research and discussion before any actions are taken. Below are examples of organizations that fall within each of these categories.
Supporters
Intellectual Ventures is a company that was founded in 2000 by Nathan Myhrvold, Edward Jung and Gregory Gorder. The business model of this group is to come up with ideas and inventions, then patent these ideas, as well as purchase currently existing patents. They then license these patents to other companies. This group receives funding from an assorted group of companies, institutions, universities and private funders. These funders include Apple, Intel, Google and Bill Gates. They work together with private inventors, universities and research institutions around the world to develop patents for a wide variety of challenges currently facing our world. However, there have been some companies that Intellectual Ventures has had conflicts with. In 2010, they filed a lawsuit against certain companies, including McAfee, Symantec and Hynix, accusing them of patent infringement.
One of the areas of innovation that they deal with involves climate change, and ways to either minimize greenhouse gas emissions or mitigate the effects of climate change. They believe that geoengineering can be a viable option for preventing the negative effects of climate change, when used in conjunction with other methods. They support more research of these techniques before they are used, but they also advocate the immediate exploration of these techniques, before the climate problem becomes more dire. Their website, with their outlook on climate change and geoengineering, can be found here.
Opponents
The Bonnefire Coalition is a fairly recent, liberal organization that was founded by activist Bonnie Hoag in February 2009. The Coalition was originally founded in order to stop the genoengineering project known as the 'Persistent Jet Contrails (PJC) program'. Jet contrails are a type of solar radiation management, in that they reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth. Hoag felt that their use was dangerous and misunderstood, and founded this group in order to bring education and awareness about this, and other solar radiation management methods, to the public. This group works with the California Skywatch group and the Agriculture Defense Coalition to bring up geoengineering issues on the floor of Congress and in the media, schools and homes. They work against those who support the use or research of solar radiation management, such as Bill Gates and Ken Caldiera. More can be learned about this organization and their current actions to prevent the further use geoengineering by visiting their website.
Groups on the fence
The Environmental Defense Fund is a nonpartisan group that deals with a variety of environmental issues, especially in the areas of climate, preserving ecosystems and human health. The EDF was established in 1967 by Art Cooley, Charlie Wurster and Dennis Pulesto. They were determined to ban the use of DDT in Long Island, and brought a case to court to try to discontinue its use in the state of New York. In 1966, the court ruled in favor of a ban on DDT, in 1970, the governor made the ban state-wide and by 1972, the ban of DDT had extended to the whole nation.
Over time, the group expanded to include more issues and now is an established non-profit, with over 700,000 members. The EDF combines the use of science, economics and law to successfully bring awareness and change to many important environmental issues. They work with a multitude of organizations and corporations, including mid-atlantic farmers, the US Army, and Walmart. Some of their successes include adding whales hunted in the US to the Endangered Species list, ending the use of leaded gasoline, and preventing the destruction of many acres of the Amazon rainforest. As they are a non profit group, they receive funding mostly from foundation grants, members and donations.
In terms of geoengineering, their stated goal is to "provide leadership in framing the public discourse on geoengineering and in understanding and managing the risks and opportunities geoengineering might provide". They recognize that there are many uncertain dangers surrounding the use of geoengineering. Despite this, they also believe that there is potential for some of the geoengineering techniques to help prevent further climate change, and that no potential solutions should be dismissed just yet. At this point in time, they believe that more knowledge is needed before any decisions can be made regarding the use of geoengineering techniques, and that there must be an open and continuous discourse between the scientific and policy making communities. They hope to be an organization that bridges between these two entities. More about this group and their stance on geoengineering can be found here.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a part of the United Nations, and was established in 1988 by two other UN groups: the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program. The main purpose of this organization is to assess the state of knowledge surrounding climate change issues, and to make recommendations while considering social, economic, technical and environmental factors. This group is global and nonpartisan, and receives funding from the WMO, UNEP, UNFCCC and contributions from member countries. The IPCC receives information from experts and scientists from around the world, and uses them to create periodic reports that provides updates on the amount and type of knowledge available in the topics of physical science behind climate change, vulnerable areas and ways to adapt, mitigation of the effects of climate change, and inventories of greenhouse gas emissions in each country. They are responsible for providing a link between the science and policy-makers of governments around the globe.
Like the EDF, the IPCC does not completely endorse or oppose the use of geoengineering techniques. They acknowledge that there is a need for more research. Geoengineering techniques could help prevent negative effects of climate change, especially if the world cannot reach a consensus on reducing emissions before it is too late. However, using these techniques could also create unintended severe consequences in some parts of the world. In 2011, the IPCC held a closed meeting with geoengineering experts to listen to proposals for potential geoengineering solutions. The IPCC maintains that they are keeping a neutral stance on the issue for now, however, many environmental and humans rights groups are critiquing this meeting, saying that advocates of geoengineering were the only ones represented at the conference, instead of a variety of voices from all of the people around the world who would be affected by the use of geoengineering. The results from this meeting will be a part of the fifth assessment, due to be published sometime later this year. More about the IPCC can be learned by visiting their website.