Lockie, Stewart, and Paxton, Gillian (2025) Possibilities for a critical social science of assisted ecosystem adaptation and other climate intervention practices. Environmental Sociology, 12 (1). pp. 1-9.

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Abstract

Increasingly severe climate change impacts are leading to increased interest in novel climate interventions including assisted ecosystem adaptation; that is, the deliberate acceleration of evolutionary responses to climate pressure through techniques such as assisted species migration, selective breeding and enhanced ecosystem restoration. Research into these and other techniques has attracted criticism, however, regarding the risk of unintended ecological consequences, the challenge of developing effective governance regimes, and the potential to justify inattention to the root causes of environmental change. We argue here that many of the criticisms levelled at assisted ecosystem adaptation in coral reefs, more specifically, are characterized by singular voices, polemic arguments, empirical short-cuts, and premature closure. While to make this argument we must evaluate criticisms of assisted reef adaptation, our intent is not to have the last word but to encourage curiosity among social scientists toward the development, evaluation, and implementation of climate intervention technologies and practices. With this in mind, we propose a framework for critical engagement that–drawing on the concepts of ‘matters of concern’ and ‘matters of care’–shifts attention from arbitrating over the facts of intervention to facilitating more inclusive, foresightful, and constructive dialogue over climate intervention knowledge, goals, and ethics.

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