Researchers Who Planned Test to Dim Sunlight Wanted to ‘Avoid Scaring’ the Public: POLITICO
Bill Gates-funded team quietly coordinated with Feds, sought billionaire backing for Puerto Rico–Sized sunlight dimming experiment.
A team of researchers backed by billionaires and federal scientists planned a massive geoengineering experiment to dim the sun’s rays—and deliberately kept the public in the dark.
Internal communications reveal that the project’s leaders wanted to “avoid scaring” local officials and the public as they prepared for a large-scale test involving the spraying of saltwater particles into the atmosphere over 3,900 square miles—an area larger than Puerto Rico.
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The documents, obtained by mainstream media outlet POLITICO through a public records request to the University of Washington, detail over 400 emails, funding proposals, and text messages describing the plans.
The university’s Marine Cloud Brightening Program had partnered with SRI International and the geoengineering advocacy group SilverLining, and had already secured some federal funding while seeking access to U.S. government ships and aircraft.
“At such scales, meaningful changes in clouds will be readily detectable from space,” reads a 2023 research plan.
While the researchers offered no public notice of the project, internal text messages show they were carefully shaping the narrative behind the scenes.
One August 23, 2023, message from project leaders advised: “I’d avoid scaring them overly,” referring to local officials. “We want them to work largely on the assumption that things are a go.”
That same strategy extended to national press.
In November 2023, a climate solutions reporter from NPR was scheduled to visit SRI headquarters.
Ahead of the visit, Jesus Chavez, a PR strategist contracted by SilverLining, sent a firm directive to the team: “There will be no mention of the study taking place in Alameda.”
The message was bolded and underlined.
Behind the scenes, the team was simultaneously coordinating with high-level government and billionaire actors.
A December 2023 email from SilverLining’s executive director confirmed that NOAA’s head of chemical sciences, a University of Washington dean, and a representative from Gates Ventures, the private investment office of Bill Gates, were among VIP guests scheduled to attend a demonstration of the cloud-spraying device.
Gates has been a longtime supporter of solar geoengineering, funding numerous initiatives aimed at blocking sunlight to combat so-called climate change.
POLITICO reported that his office did not respond to questions about the meeting.
That same month, a donor report from the team noted that the project’s full science plan had already been shared with colleagues at both NOAA and the U.S. Department of Energy.
A DOE spokesperson later confirmed its financial support for aerosol research but denied backing any “deliberate field deployment of aerosols into the environment.”
The day before the team launched its small-scale test on a retired aircraft carrier docked in Alameda, leaders from SilverLining, SRI, and Accenture met privately in Salesforce Tower to “kick off the next phase of our work together.”
The same cloud-spray technology they demonstrated would later be used in the planned Puerto Rico–sized experiment.
Guests scheduled to attend the demonstration included Hyatt Hotels heiress Rachel Pritzker and former Sierra Club director Michael Brune.
Brune, who lives in Alameda, later told POLITICO that he hadn’t been informed of the larger-scale plans.
“The engagement with leaders here in Alameda was subpar, and the controversy was pretty predictable,” he said.
Alameda city officials eventually shut down the initial test in May 2024, citing secrecy and a lease violation.
The following month, Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft demanded a deeper understanding “not just of this small-scale experiment, but of the science, of this technology, [and] where it’s leading to.”
The city council voted unanimously to block the program from resuming.
After the backlash, internal texts show project leaders considered paying to close the Hornet museum during future tests “to give us some breathing space,” and SilverLining hired a new PR firm to manage the fallout.
On June 6, 2024, SilverLining’s director wrote the team was weighing “another run at a proposal to the city post-election,” hoping to rebuild support.
But behind closed doors, the project’s lead researcher admitted the damage had already been done.
“[Access to federal aircraft] isn’t going to happen any time soon,” Marine Cloud Brightening Program director Sarah Doherty wrote on June 14, 2024.
Whether the large-scale ocean test is still in motion remains unclear.
But the documents make one thing certain: Researchers aiming to dim the sun coordinated with billionaires and government scientists while intentionally shielding the public from their plans.
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Same demons different day...these assholes are mentally ill and should be locked away from the human beings they despise
Who's funding this 'research'?