Inevitable & Obvious

What We Don’t Know About Cooling the Planet — Dakota Gruener, CEO of Reflective

March 17, 2026·58 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

Stratospheric aerosol injection might be one of the only interventions that could reduce global warming on the timescales that actually matter, but we don't yet know enough to say if it's completely worth the potential tradeoffs, and we're not on track to find out in time. Dakota Gruener is the founder and CEO of Reflective, an independent nonprofit trying to change that by radically accelerating the research. In this conversation, we talk about what it would take to actually evaluate SAI: • The tools Reflective has built to map the unknowns • The case for something like clinical trials for the atmosphere• Why Dakota thinks the worst outcome isn't deployment but decisions being forced before the science is ready.Subscribe for free at inevitableandobvious.com Get full access to Inevitable & Obvious at www.inevitableandobvious.com/subscribe

Podzilla Summary coming soon

Sign up to get notified when the full AI-powered summary is ready.

Get Free Summaries →

Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.

Listen to This Episode

Get summaries like this every morning.

Free AI-powered recaps of Inevitable & Obvious and your other favorite podcasts, delivered to your inbox.

Get Free Summaries →

Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.