Intro: "Two investigators are continuing down the risky path of geoengineering by readying a field experiment involving spraying chemicals into the atmosphere that would theoretically bounce sunlight back into the air to cool the Earth."

The field experiment in solar geoengineering aims to ultimately create a technology to replicate the observed effects of volcanoes that spew sulphates into the stratosphere. (photo: Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Geoengineers to Start Volcano-Inspired Experiment in Risky Climate Manipulation

By Common Dreams

19 July 12

wo investigators are continuing down the risky path of geoengineering by readying a field experiment involving spraying chemicals into the atmosphere that would theoretically bounce sunlight back into the air to cool the Earth, the Guardian reports. But risks of geoengineering are high, and pinning hopes on a technological fix to climate change may thwart greenhouse gas reduction efforts while doing nothing to change the paradigm that created climate change.

One of the two Harvard engineers in the Fort Sumner, New Mexico, experiment is David Keith, manager of "a multimillion dollar geoengineering research fund provided by Microsoft founder Bill Gates." Their idea is to mimic the planet-cooling effect that happens when volcanoes release sulphates.

Yet many say the risks are serious and potentially disastrous.

In June scientists warned that large-scale engineering projects could reduce global rainfall by about 5 percent, and as much as 15 percent in areas of North America and Europe. "Climate engineering cannot be seen as a substitute for a policy pathway of mitigating climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," the scientists said in a study published in Earth System Dynamics.

Explaining on Democracy Now! why geoengineering is a false solution, environmentalist and scientist Vandana Shiva said that "it is the idea of being able to engineer our lives on this very fragile and complex and interrelated and interconnected planet that’s created the mess we are in. It’s an engineering paradigm that created the fossil fuel age, that gave us climate change. And Einstein warned us and said you can’t solve problems with the same mindset that created them. Geoengineering is trying to solve the problems with the same old mindset of controlling nature."

Pat Mooney, executive director of technology watchdog ETC Group, also warned of the dangers. "Impacts include the potential for further damage to the ozone layer, and disruption of rainfall, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions – potentially threatening the food supplies of billions of people," he said. "It will do nothing to decrease levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or halt ocean acidification. And solar geoengineering is likely to increase the risk of climate-related international conflict – given that the modelling to date shows it poses greater risks to the global south."

Mooney previously referred to geoengineering as "a political strategy aimed at letting industrialized countries off the hook for their climate debt."

Comments

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+12 # Glen 2012-07-18 09:05

Welcome to new age atomic testing. Anybody asking OUR permission today? Of course, permission was asked of nobody during the hundreds of bomb tests but most especially the first one. Not one person knew what the results would be but did it anyway. Fortunately for the rest of us the atmosphere did not flame on.

Another warning from Michael Crichton, folks. This is the type of technology that we have been cautioned about, and Vandana Shiva stated it perfectly.

+13 # FredM 2012-07-18 09:32

Once more Ms Vandana Shiva gets it right.

Why do dimwit engineers always get their way for aggravating the fate of the world ?
how do they manage to get heard and obtain the green light ? is there something we haven't been told here ? is it just about money ? yes, the climate debt ?

+11 # Lisa Moskow 2012-07-18 09:45

So what is new about this? Chemttrails have been going on for years and no one seems to notice.... Except me I guess. One of the excuses for chemtrails is the same idea as expressed in this article.

We must listen to Vandana Shiva.

These "scientists" or government flacks
have delusions of grandeur and we the taxpayers pay the price. Not enough money to feed and house and educate people but literally billions to pollute the atmosphere and play "God".

+11 # paulrevere 2012-07-18 10:39

I, personally, have been observing Chemtrails over the Lake Tahoe/Northern Nevada region since 1997.

For this writer, this university and our government to present this as some new tech just off the drawing board is abhorrant and another illustration of how deeply and far reaching the lies they condone go...

I AM SICK OF IT!!

+12 # Smiley 2012-07-18 10:16

Sounds like the "Sorcerer's Apprentice"...m ore likely to make thing worse instead of better.

+7 # lynnscott 2012-07-18 11:27

This report must have been written years ago. Those who look up on the west and east coasts and in Hawaii have been dealing with the effects of spraying aluminum, barium and uranium on our heads and crops for at least 5 years. Allergic reactions, crop shrinkage and damage, blood tests showing these metals in our bodies go along with colder weather and less rain. No one will say who, why, but there will be a video out in the fall called Why in the World are They Spraying? (a follow up to What in the World are They Spraying) should enlighten us somewhat. There are scientists around the world looking into this secret program--the next military weapon?

Lynn Scott

+3 # Electricrailwaygod 2012-07-18 11:57

What a load of crap! No! Not NO! not the ETC Group, Bill Moyers, or Mooney, but this whole so-called 'geoengineering ' crap! Spraying sulfates into the Atmosphäre?

Firstly there isn't enough sulfates to go around, but this would call an end to the biosphere on Planet Earth and US as a human species! This has got to be STOPPED at all cost before this gets out of the laboratory!

This is one of the most STUPIDEST SILLY PUERILE nonsense I have heard out of the scientific community! THIS SPELLS DISASTER!

PLEASE whoever should be reading this comment, DO SOMETHING to actively contribute to the HALTING OF THIS death knall for Planet Earth!

Thank you!

+2 # mainescorpio 2012-07-18 11:58

Surely these engineers need permission to perform this experiment. The atmosphere belongs to all of us.

If not, this would be akin to drying up some sea to give us more land.

+7 # wise old owl 2012-07-18 12:03

For those who don't "believe" CO2 put into the atmosphere by humans could possibly have any global effect, this is a way to claim they are "trying to solve the problem." The real problem --of course-- is their inability to understand that WE are the cause of global warming. All we need do is stop doing what we're doing!

+4 # Billy Bob 2012-07-18 15:44

But "doing what we're doing" is wildly profitable.

+6 # dlgriscom 2012-07-18 12:51

Lisa, Paul, and Lynn are right. There have been chemtrails dumped in the atmosphere for over a decade, and now they've become major missions all over the western world. They hit us in Mexico, when we visit in Tucson, and now heavily during our current visit to France; Paris has been particularly hammered today and the day before yesterday. In the first 10 minutes of the video that Lynn mentions, David Keith is interrogated after his lecture at a scientific meeting and is finally compelled to admit that no studies had been carried out on its toxicity for humans. I have included this video at the bottom of a blog post of mine:
http://impactglassman.blogspot.com/2012/01/chemtrails-monstrous-conspiracy-against.html

+4 # noitall 2012-07-18 14:51

Brilliance without humility, when dealing with nature, equals potential for catastrophe. To ignore the complexity and diversity of Nature is to set oneself up for failure which wouldn't be so bad if all it meant was failure of a personal project but in this case (and many like it happening around us, such as "dispersants" in oil spills) sets us up for unforeseen (by them) negative impacts that impact ALL OF US, not just the egos of those who are willing to gamble our environment for their own personal accomplishment. What do they risk personally if they fail? Embarassment? It is all of us who are at risk and they shouldn't be allowed (Harvard or not) to screw with our World. Let's see them gamble their lives, swear to jump off of the Golden Gate Bridge if they fail. Then we'll see some serious consideration.

+2 # nirmalandhas 2012-07-18 20:35

The "mindset" is "going/not going ahead without a clear vision of possible consequences".. .it is not the doing or not doing in itself but whether possible and likely consequences are looked at and taken into account.

Sulphates in the atmosphere may work. They worked when pinotuba blew up last and bought us at least a decade. The problem is that this also messed up the climate in other ways, causing floods and drought... what made that happen is something we need to figure out before putting any more sulphates in the atmosphere.

+2 # handmjones 2012-07-19 03:23

Interestingly there is a second suggestion for geo-engineering also somewhat confirmed by observing the results of volcanic activity. That is the fertilization of the sea using iron. Confirmed experimentally, addition of a little iron to the sea encourages the growth of phytoplankton, the base of the food chain in the sea. After an Alaskan eruption added iron to a wide portion of the north Pacific we had a quite unusual salmon run. More life in the sea means more carbon carried to the sea floor and more potential food for us.
A promoter, named Nelson Skalbanian Sp? purchased a ship to advance the study but was prevented from proceeding by the inconvenience of being incarcerated by the U.S. government.

+2 # Morris Townson 2012-07-19 15:16

There was a cute TV show back in the early 1980s called Dinosaurs created by Jim Henson. http://www.crazyabouttv.com/dinosaurs.html

In which the entire story line was threaded with warnings about the environment. In one show to make money they cut down all the trees and the sun was too hot so they started volcanoes to put ash in the sky to "cool" the planet. Well, they ended up killing the planet..... prophecy from Jim Henson

0 # Billy Bob 2012-07-19 21:15

Good comment. Awesome show too. One thing though. It was an early '90s show, not an early '80s show.

+1 # RnR 2012-07-20 04:58

I can die knowing I witnessed the ascension of the stupid, shortsighted and self-absorbed.. .

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