This Article documents the advent of emerging silver bullet environmental technologies, describing how private sector actors are driving the explosion of these solutions. Using research from several cases studies, this article shows how individuals with big visions and no significant expertise are increasingly championing these emerging technologies, inspired by a Silicon Valley ethos of disruption. These technologies evade existing environmental regulatory regimes. The proliferation of large-scale technologies single-handedly developed and deployed by wealthy philanthropists both triggers environmental concerns and exacerbates existing inequities in environmental management. This Article argues that both formal and informal accountability mechanisms for emerging technologies must be strengthened to prevent large-scale environmental consequences.
Environmental Silver Bullets
