Gates-Funded Technology Sprays Concoction from Aircraft Carrier Into Sky to Block the Sun in California: 'Extraordinarily Dangerous' Solar Radiation Modification (SRM)
"This is a scary vision of the future that we should try and avoid at all costs," says Greenpeace International senior scientist.
In Alameda, California, a team of scientists from the University of Washington is testing so-called marine cloud brightening, a controversial geoengineering technique purportedly to cool Earth in the name of “climate change.”
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The method involves spraying a solution including microscopic sea salt particles into the atmosphere from ships traveling the ocean.
The solution particles are released into the air, creating “ship tracks” behind them, theoretically boosting the reflectivity of clouds and bouncing sunlight away from the Earth.
It is unclear from reports what other chemicals the solution contains in addition to salt.
The project, which began on Tuesday, is being conducted on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Hornet, marking a significant escalation from laboratory experiments to field trials that will run through autumn.
It represents North America’s first publicized, real-world application of this specific technology.
But efforts to block the sun have been well documented.
In June 2023, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a congressionally mandated report suggesting that both global and regional geoengineering projects are being carried out “covertly,” without citizens’ knowledge.
Page 43 of the document confirms the U.S. government “conducts or funds limited research into solar radiation modification” (SRM), which involves the use of airplanes or balloons to disperse potentially dangerous chemicals into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight away from Earth.
The same page of the White House document also confirms that U.S. Congress has been directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) to fund SRM research “for the last several years.”
A bill prohibiting the federal government from engaging in geoengineering experimentation involving the release of chemicals into the sky, what some refer to as “chemtrails,” passed the Tennessee House of Representatives on Monday.
The legislation (SB 2691) passed the House with 70 ‘yes’ votes and 22 ‘no’ votes.
It prohibits “the intentional injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of chemicals, chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight.”
The California Bay Area’s foggy conditions were deemed ideal for the new experiments, with the team focusing on optimizing the size and concentration of the salt particles for maximum efficacy.
Future phases will reportedly involve airplanes equipped to test the effects of salt particles on clouds.
The whole project is budgeted at about $10 million over three years, with the study aboard the Hornet expected to cost about $1 million a year.
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Project Criticism
David Santillo, a senior scientist at Greenpeace International, expresses significant skepticism towards the concept of modifying solar radiation through techniques like marine cloud brightening.
He warns that employing such methods on a scale large enough to affect world temperatures could lead to unpredictable and potentially unmeasurable consequences.
Santillo cautions that these interventions might alter weather patterns across both terrestrial and marine environments.
“You could well be changing climatic patterns, not just over the sea, but over land as well,” he said. “This is a scary vision of the future that we should try and avoid at all costs.”
Sarah Doherty, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington and manager of its marine cloud brightening program said there were potential side effects that still needed to be studied.
“I hope, and I think all my colleagues hope, that we never use these things, that we never have to,” she said.
Karen Orenstein, director of the nonprofit environmental group Climate and Energy Justice Program at Friends of the Earth U.S., has called solar radiation modification “extraordinarily dangerous.”
An open letter signed by the 16 initiators of the Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement argues that deploying solar geoengineering technology could backfire catastrophically.
“The risks of solar geoengineering are poorly understood and can never be fully known,” the scholars said. “Impacts will vary across regions, and there are uncertainties about the effects on weather patterns, agriculture, and the provision of basic needs of food and water.”
One of the letter’s initiators, Frank Biermann, professor of global sustainability governance at Utrecht University, summed up the signatories’ position: “Solar engineering is not necessary. Neither is it desirable, ethical, or politically governable.”
The letter calls for five measures to be adhered to internationally:
No public funding for solar geoengineering
No outdoor experiments
No patents for solar geoengineering tech
No deployment of such tech
No support for solar geoengineering from international institutions
Dozens of academics, including law professors and writers, have signed the letter.
Among them are award-winning author Amitav Ghosh, Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer professor of science and technology studies at Harvard Kennedy School, and Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, Halley professor of physics at the University of Oxford.
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Bill Gates-Funded Technology
The new Alameda project is based on technology funded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.
In 2006, after being briefed on solar geoengineering by David Keith, a leading researcher in the field, Gates began funding Keith’s research into reflecting the sun’s rays.
This led the group to consider marine cloud brightening and collaborate with Armand Neukermans, who developed a specialized nozzle for spraying sea salt aerosols.
The work resulted in the creation of a sprayer that would be used in the Alameda project.
The New York Times, who reported on the new project, explains:
In 2006, the Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, got a briefing from David Keith, one of the leading researchers in solar geoengineering, which is the idea of trying to reflect more of the sun’s rays. Mr. Gates began funding Dr. Keith and Ken Caldeira, another climate scientist and a former software developer, to further their research.
The pair considered the idea of marine cloud brightening but wondered if it was feasible.
So they turned to Armand Neukermans, a Silicon Valley engineer with a doctorate in applied physics from Stanford and 74 patents. One of his early jobs was at Xerox, where he devised a system to produce and spray ink particles for copiers. Dr. Caldeira asked if he could develop a nozzle that would spray not ink, but sea salt aerosols.
Intrigued, Dr. Neukermans, who is now 83, lured some of his old colleagues out of retirement and began research in a borrowed lab in 2009, with $300,000 from Mr. Gates. They called themselves the Old Salts.
The team worked on the problem for years, eventually landing on a solution: By pushing air at extremely high pressure through a series of nozzles, they could create enough force to smash salt crystals into exceedingly small particles of just the right size.
Their work moved to a larger laboratory at the Palo Alto Research Center, a former Xerox research facility now owned by SRI International, a independent nonprofit research institute. Dr. [Jessica] Medrado became the lead engineer for the project two years ago. By the end of last year, the sprayer had been assembled and was waiting in a warehouse near San Francisco.
The machine was ready. The team needed somewhere to test it.
By 2012, Keith and Caldeira had received over $4.6 million from Gates to run Harvard’s ‘Fund for Innovative Climate and Energy Research.’
However, in June 2021, about 30 indigenous groups worldwide urged Harvard to cease its involvement in the Gates-supported solar geoengineering research, in partnership with the Swedish Space Corporation.
Their collective stance, articulated through a letter orchestrated by the Saami Council—a body representing the indigenous Saami communities of Scandinavia and Russia—firmly rejected the validation and execution of solar geoengineering projects on or over their lands, territories, skies, or any ecosystem worldwide.
“We do not approve legitimising development towards solar geoengineering technology, nor for it to be conducted in or above our lands, territories and skies, nor in any ecosystems anywhere,” the signatories stated in a letter drafted by the council.
Influential activist Greta Thunberg aligned herself with the indigenous groups, opposing the development of solar geoengineering technology.
The test was called off following the indigenous groups’ successful intervention.
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Headline image credit: Justyouraveragelechuga/Wikimedia Commons under the Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
So Greenpeace finally admits that the new stuff is dangerous. I used to donate to them. Before I quit, I called their headquarters and said they should take a stand against the solar engineering that is already going on. My comments were met with derision. I did stop supporting them. If they and other so called environmental groups would acknowledge what's happening, I would once again support them. The Sierra Club is full of false environmental solutions to "climate change". Good work Jon Fleetwood. I wish it were easier to share your substacks.