istockphoto / brobible illustration
Some scientists along with a few billionaires, venture capitalists, startup founders and tech executives, are plotting a way to block out the sun.
No, this is not the plot from an episode of The Simpsons.
They really are trying to figure out a good way to blot out the sun, according to a new report by Bloomberg.
Why would they want to do such a thing? Global warming.
Here’s what they have come up with so far.
A growing number of Silicon Valley founders and investors are backing research into blocking the sun by spraying reflective particles high in the atmosphere or making clouds brighter. The goal is to quickly cool the planet.
A couple of startups are already trying to deploy this untested technology or betting governments will eventually use it, while a cluster of Bay Area nonprofits are backing research into its planetary impact. With the world hotter than at any point in human history and emissions showing no sign of falling, the pitch is that dimming the sun is a relatively cheap way to turn the heat down.
“To get started it only takes one person to say, ‘I have 100 million quid, I have a business jet, let’s go,’” said Andrew Lockley, a UK-based independent researcher in the field scientists call geoengineering. “History will judge whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
So, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, the concept of reflecting sunlight to cool the planet — known as solar radiation management (SRM) – could change rainfall patterns and/or negatively affect the ozone layer. Why would that be a problem? Because of little things like malaria, cholera, crop failures, geopolitical chaos, and the fact that blocking out the sun doesn’t actually do anything to fix climate change.
So, has anyone tried it yet? And does it work?
Yes, and maybe, depending on what your definition of success is.
Luke Iseman started the SRM company Make Sunsets after reading the book Termination Shock, which tells the story of a Texas billionaire who builds the world’s biggest gun to shoot particles into the sky to reflect sunlight.
Tens of millions of dollars have already been committed to SRM research by organizations like Quadrature Climate Foundation and The Simons Foundation. People like Bill Gates, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, former technology chief Mike Schroepfer and co-founder Dustin Moskovitz of Meta Platforms Inc., and hotel heiress Rachel Pritzker have all also shown support for the idea.
Most SRM research focuses on planes delivering sulfur dioxide to the stratosphere. At least one startup is already iterating on that concept. Luke Iseman started Make Sunsets after reading Termination Shock. The startup is already launching sulfate-filled balloons and sells “cooling credits,” akin to carbon offsets. It’s impossible to measure exactly what impact, if any, Make Sunsets has on the planet’s temperature.
Oh, by the way. The guy who wrote the book Termination Shock, Neal Stephenson, doesn’t like these ideas and suggests anyone using it as some sort of template for fixing global warming is seriously misguided.
“It’s certainly not a story in which SRM is deployed and everyone lives happily ever after,” he said.