Climate Grifters Ahead
While lurking in Twitterverse on Tuesday, I learned that a couple of tech bros were planning a mini solar-geoengineering demo in the heart of San Francisco. The said bros run Make Sunsets, “a pioneering stratospheric aerosol injection company… at the forefront of developing innovative solutions to combat climate change and cool our planet.” Their grand idea, inspired by a cli-fi novel: releasing sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the stratosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions.
To illustrate the principle behind their solar-dimming approach during SF Climate Week — a five-day event planned around Earth Day — they were inviting people to drop by at Mission Dolores Park and “release an SO2-filled balloon or just keep it for free.”
Couple of things here. First, SO2 is a severe irritant to the respiratory tract, eyes, and skin, and exposure to high doses can cause serious breathing issues. Second, real-world use of “stratospheric solar geoengineering” is highly controversial. Though it's being researched as a possible climate solution, including via a White House-backed project, the National Academies of Sciences stresses that such projects “should be carried out in coordination with other nations, subject to governance, and alongside a robust portfolio of climate mitigation and adaptation policies.”
After several good folks began sounding the alarm about the event on Twitter on Tuesday, a few things happened in quick succession. SF Climate Week put out a disclaimer saying all its events were “‘independently’ organized by participating organizations” and temporarily removed the event from its calendar. Make Sunset offered to give people helium-filled balloons instead. And on Wednesday, SF Parks and Recreation announced that it “would not issue a permit for this activity” and had asked the company “to remove any advertising or social media for this event.” By this morning, Make Sunsets had taken down its event page.
There’s more: Last year, the company’s CEO, Luke Iseman, pulled a similar — no, worse — stunt in Baja, Mexico, releasing a six-foot, SO2-filled balloon into the air as an experiment without bothering to seek permission from the Mexican government. The act, the world’s first known solar-dimming experiment, led to Mexico banning all such projects in the country. Iseman, who does not have a climate science background, has already raised $750,000 in venture capital and other funds for his startup.
As federal and venture capital money begins pouring in for climate science and energy innovation projects (Biden’s $6.8 trillion budget plan includes $16.5 billion for such projects), I suspect many such ill-conceived, slapdash, techno-solutions are coming our way courtesy of climate grifters seeking to make some quick carbon cash. That’s sad, because really, we should be channeling our money and efforts towards simpler, proven climate solutions — like rewilding and keeping fossil fuels in the ground — which can heal both our climate and ecosystems.
Maureen Nandini Mitra
Editor, Earth Island Journal
Photo by Jason Leung
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