Geoengineering
Posted at 5:47 pm on Sunday, March 15, 2009, in Uncategorized, and tagged tpm.
My graduate degree is in geoengineering. I work in the field of geoengineering. A colleague of mine runs the successful (but ugly) geoengineer.org. Needless to say, I am familiar with the term. So I was surprised to see Josh Marshall using it derogatorily this afternoon. However, it seems that he is talking about another “geoengineering,” one that I have not yet been aware of. The use of the term as it applies to the military studies Marshall references is a different animal than the study and design of works as it pertains to soil and rock, the definition of geoengineering that I am familiar with, and for which I make a living.
It is common practice to throw “geo” or “eco” or “bio” as a prefix to any word these days, and sell it like new science. The best example is bioswale, which is the same thing as a swale, a grassed ditch that conveys water. But regulators get all frenzied with excitement when they read “bioswale” — and not swale — in a report as a mitigation measure, so engineers have adopted the term wholesale.
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