Dr. Cameron Hu

In this collaboration, Cameron Hu and Stefan Schäfer study contemporary efforts to “solve” climate change through industrial carbon management at planetary scales. Using ethnographic, archival, and interview-based research methods, Hu and Schäfer will inquire into the push by fossil fuel companies to manage how CO2 circulates through the Earth system. Seeking to "close the loop" on emissions by complementing carbon extraction with carbon burial, these companies are defining anew what "climate action" is. To study the possibilities and limits of such "climate action," Hu and Schäfer will attend science-industry conferences dedicated to the carbon management practices of fossil fuel producers, carry out field trips to critical sites in CO2 management, visit archives that house records of earlier forms of CO2 use, and conduct interviews with petroleum industry actors.