Author Archives: Cody Skahan

Cody Skahan is a graduate of the MA program in Anthropology at the University of Iceland as a Leifur Eriksson Fellow and DPhil student at the University of Oxford. His work focuses on youth environmentalism in the Arctic, conflicting and interrelated sociotechnical imaginaries around geoengineering (the subject of his DPhil research), and the use of theory for public communication and social change. Cody co-hosts a social theory and anthropology podcast with two of his friends called Un/livable Cultures available wherever you get podcasts.
cody.skahan@anthro.ox.ac.uk | https://codyskahan.wordpress.com/ | Assemblage Profile
Altering reflection of shortwave radiation from sun based on different solar climate interventions: surface albedo enhancement reflects off the surface of the Earth; increasing the reflectivity of marine clouds reflects off of clouds over the ocean; increasing the amount of stratospheric aerosol has reflection off of aerosols in the atmosphere; space-based methods illustrate reflection off of a satellite. Altering transmission of long wave radiation: decreasing the amount of high altitude cirrus clouds results in long wave radiation passing through the boundary layer top (1-1.5 km) and tropopause (10-16km) above sea level.

Geoengineering: De Facto Environmental Governance and Alternative Future Making

Cody Skahan September 24, 2024
Listen to a reading of this post.

I first heard about Solar Radiation Modification (SRM)—a form of geoengineering meant to address climate change through planetary cooling—during the 2023 Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland, at a networking lunch for youth working in environmentalism. My Master’s thesis in Anthropology at the University of Iceland focused on Ungir Umhverfissinnar (English translation: the Icelandic Youth Environmentalist Association), which I (from the United States) had joined the board of both as a climate activist and engaged anthropologist. During my interviews and participant observation with the organization, geoengineering had never come up until my colleague from Ungir Umhverfissinnar and I were approached by representatives from Operaatio Arktis (OA). Intent on “ the polar ice caps and preventing global tipping points,” OA has followed prominent research advocates in fostering discussion around an SRM technique called Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI). (read more...)

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