Dphil Student, University of Oxford
Contributor, Platypus, The CASTAC Blog
About Cody
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.
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Contributions to Platypus, The CASTAC Blog
View all of Cody's posts on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.
Geoengineering: De Facto Environmental Governance and Alternative Future Making
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). (more…) (read more...)