"Decision-makers and the public they serve need balanced information about the effectiveness and risks of geoengineering," he wrote in that editorial. ", Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. As Keutsch has pointed out, this is not a fringe view, it is one held by several scientific bodies. A new coalition of scholars wants the technology effectively banned. The name of the project is SCoPEx, or, Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment . Instead, it will observe how particles interact with one another, with the background stratospheric air, and with solar and infrared radiation. Slippery-slope arguments aside, this is a far cry from an attempt to geoengineer the world. Microsoft's MSFT -2.2% billionaire founder Bill Gates is financially backing the development of sun-dimming technology that would potentially reflect sunlight out of Earth's atmosphere,. Elsewhere, the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G) aims to get the United Nations to discuss solar geoengineering at the UN General Assembly in 2023though C2G emphasizes that its stance is strictly impartial, and that the initiative simply seeks effective governance of the technologies. The Swedish Space Corporation has agreed to help launch a balloon close to the town of Kiruna, Forbes reported. If the plan is green-lit, a high-altitude balloon would disperse the mineral dust to study the viability, and risks, of solar geoengineering. Geo-Solar Engineering to Save the Planet By Nancy Thorner Reported by Frank Bergman on February 18, 2023: George Soros, worth 10 billion as of 2023, is pushing a plan to block the sun to fight climate change as a way to cool Earth's global temperature.. Soros outlined his plan during his address at the Munich Security Conference on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2023. 1800 I Street NW This process involves seeding the stratosphere with aerosols to reflect sunlight away. Anyone new to solar panels should start with a good kit, like this one by Renology. 801 3rd St. S .css-ow13hy{background-color:#1c6a65;color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:FreightSansW01,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.03rem;padding:0.8125rem 1.25rem 0.9rem;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;text-decoration-color:#1c6a65;text-decoration-thickness:0.125rem;text-transform:uppercase;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;width:auto;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-ow13hy{font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1;padding:0.7rem 1rem 0.75rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-ow13hy{padding:0.7rem 1rem 0.75rem;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-ow13hy{font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1;padding:0.8125rem 1.25rem 0.9rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-ow13hy{font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1;}}.css-ow13hy:focus-visible{outline-color:body-cta-btn-link-focus;}.css-ow13hy:hover{color:#fff;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;background-color:#000000;border:none;} Make your inbox more awesome. (Photo by: VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images), Santa Clara, California 27 September, 2014 Global, March Against Chemtrails and Geoengineering, YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA - JANUARY 07: Lava runs down, from Mount Merapi as the volcanic activity increases on January 7, 2021 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The proposed Harvard experiment would use a high-altitude balloon to lift instruments into the atmosphere and release aerosols. This may seem like an idle distinction, but it matters. Bill Gates is investing in research to build sun-dimming technologies which could reverse global warming. So what should humanity do about it? ", He wrote: "The obvious nightmare is that the future possibility of geoengineering slows efforts to stop emissions but that the technology turns out to be infeasible. The article was shared on Facebook and was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. We should also note Gates' involvement in the SCoPEx project is purely financial. Aerosols are the gaseous clouds. Geoengineering is a blanket term for technologies that try to alter Earths physical qualities on the largest scale possible. Franklin Jacome/Agencia Press South/Getty Images, lists Bill Gates as one of its philanthropic donors, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Large scale use of the processknown as solar geoengineeringis a "terrifying" concept that is only likely to be used in the future if significant regions of the planet become too warm to be habitable, Harvard University Professor Frank Keutsch told The Times. The test was originally scheduled for June 2021, but will be delayed until at least 2022. So, is all of this a good idea or not? .css-v1xtj3{display:block;font-family:FreightSansW01,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:100;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-v1xtj3:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.1387rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-v1xtj3{line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.18581rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-top:0rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}USAF's Reactor Creates Jet Fuel Out of Water, Air, Ring Lasers Can Allow Time Travel, Scientist Says, Mystery on Easter Island: More Moai Found in Lake, Ironton Found: Solving An 1894 Shipwreck Mystery, Scientists Discovered a Highly Reactive Superacid, 60 Scientists Are Trying to Block the Sun. This is why scientists are asking now for a major investment in solar geoengineering research. In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts. Prominent campaigner Greta Thunberg came out in support of the indigenous peoples and against solar geoengineering. Update 01/22/2022 GMT1240: This post has been updated to clarify the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiatives stance on solar geoengineering technologies, as noted by C2G executive director Janos Pasztor. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering Other wealthy individuals have also funded a series of reports into the future use of technologies to geoengineer. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. It will cost several million dollars and has been funded by private donors, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Caroline Delbert is a writer, avid reader, and contributing editor at Pop Mech. To refine these models, scientists need to know how the aerosols interact with the atmosphere on a nanoscale. If successful, this could be a step towards a second experimental stage that would release a small amount of CaCO3 dust into the atmosphere. Improved understanding of these processes will help answer applied questions such as, is it possible to find aerosols that can reduce or eliminate ozone loss, without increasing other physical risks?". So what does this mean for SCoPEx, and for solar geoengineering in general? Rather, the project seeks to understand the potential risks of geoengineering. Mount Merapi, 2,968 metres high, is known as one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia, with an eruption occurring every two to five years. Due to the controversial subject matter (more on that below) and the fact that it is privately funded, SCoPEx is overseen by an outside panel of advisers run by Harvard. Excessive aluminum in the brain. The meteor strike that might have killed the dinosaurs blanketed the Earth in a layer of aerosol dust. MSFT The world's richest man has provided at least $4.5 million of his own money over 3 years for the study of methods that could alter the stratosphere to reflect solar energy, techniques to filter carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, and brighten . Headlines or statements to the contrary rely on "slippery slope" arguments about geoengineering in general, not a fear that SCoPEx itself could destroy the world. Recently, social media users are claiming Gates is working to block the sun's rays to combat global warming. The ultra-rich are on a mission to Show more . There is a line of research on what's called geoengineering, which are various techniques that would delay the heating to buy us 20 or 30 years to get our act together. Some people say you shouldn't even work on the insurance policy because it might make you lazy, that you'll keep eating because you know heart surgery will be there to save you. Early research suggests that the substance has near-ideal optical properties that would allow it to absorb far less radiation that sulfate aerosols, causing significantly less stratospheric heating. In the case of Keutsch's experiment, the chemical will be calcium carbonate, which is essentially a chalk dust. But there is no suggestion he is in favor of blocking all sunlight from reaching Earth. The chemical is non-toxic and the amount released will also be small. released into the stratosphere to reflect the sun's light back into space, theoretically cooling the planet. Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is no stranger to conspiracy theories and speculation about the projects he funds. But in my view we have a duty to provide them with that information, so they can make those decisions in the face of really horrific climate risks.". Scientists say this lack of concrete information and consensus is a critical failure that must be corrected with new studies. This material may not be reproduced without permission. The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia resulted in the year without a summer, while the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines lowered global average temperatures by 0.5 C. Deliberate introduction of similar particles could potentially counter decades of greenhouse gas emissions. These are gathered under the umbrella term solar geoengineering. The most common and studied method is to reflect sunlight away from Earth using aerosol particles in the atmosphere, but until now, this has been seen as more of a fringe idea. The current global governance system is unfit to develop and implement the far-reaching agreements needed to maintain fair, inclusive, and effective political control over solar geoengineering deployment, they say, noting that, for example, the United Nations Security Council, dominated by only five countries with veto power, lacks the global legitimacy that would be required to effectively regulate solar geoengineering deployment., Frank Biermann, professor of global sustainability governance at Utrecht University and one of the letters initiators, summed up the signatories stance by saying: Solar engineering is not necessary. Washington, DC After much investigation, the team settled on using calcium carbonatechalk, essentiallyas an ideal light-blocking particle. But solar geoengineering is controversial, even according to the Harvard researchers who proposed the experiment.