Last week, while millions of Americans were focused squarely on preparing for and traveling to view a rare natural sky phenomenon — the total solar eclipse of April 8 — a secretive man-made sky phenomenon with unknown consequences was quietly created over American soil.
As part of the Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement project, researchers from the University of Washington injected plumes of microscopic salt particles into the sky over Alameda, California, on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay.
The purpose of what’s being called a first-of-its-kind geoengineering project in the U.S. involves “cloud brightening,” according to researchers. The released particles increase the density and reflective capacity of clouds, effectively blocking out the sun in an attempt to thwart “global warming.”
Researchers will continue pumping these salt particles (also called aerosols) into the air until the end of May.
Scientists in California shot a salt mist hundreds of feet into the sky to test technology they hope can cool the Earth.https://t.co/DlLRxxqo52
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 4, 2024
Although Kelly Wanser, the executive director of SilverLining, a geoengineering group involved in the project, said in a statement the day after the launch that it was undertaken “with a deep commitment to open science and a culture of humility,” it’s critical to note that details about the project were kept largely hidden from the public.
The researchers admitted this was due to fears that “critics would try to stop them,” according to The New York Times, which was permitted access to the launch off the deck of the decommissioned USS Hornet, now a Smithsonian-affiliated museum.
But the fears of such “critics” seem justified. Prominent scientists from around the globe continue to warn that climate modification projects could have dangerous and far-reaching unintended consequences.
In a recent open letter calling for an “international non-use agreement on solar geoengineering,” hundreds of scientists stated that the “risks of solar geoengineering are poorly understood and can never be fully known. 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.”
Likewise, 31 atmospheric scientists published a paper last month warning that there is a “lack of clear understanding of the relationship between aerosol and meteorological conditions” and that such tampering could create “regional changes in temperature in and rainfall [that] could influence heat stress, water availability, crop productivity and the ability of communities to thrive.”
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As Politico reported, such concerns have fueled protesters in successful efforts to halt similar projects, including a Harvard University experiment that called for injecting aerosols into the stratosphere near Sweden.
Likewise, outrage over a project last year by the group Make Sunsets, which launched balloons containing sulfate particles into the atmosphere over Mexico, promptly led to a solar geoengineering ban in the country.
In the U.S., however, climate modification and geoengineering projects continue to be encouraged and funded.
Although the Biden White House — no doubt fearing backlash during an election year — distanced itself from the CAARE project in a statement to the Times, claiming, “The U.S. government is not involved in the Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) experiment taking place in Alameda, CA, or anywhere else,” the outlet noted the administration is funding research into different climate interventions that include marine cloud brightening.
In 2022, the president signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which ordered a “scientific assessment of solar and other rapid climate interventions.”
And, according to a White House report published in June, the Biden administration is open to reviewing the alteration of sunlight reaching Earth as a possible way to lower global temperatures, among other so-called climate change solutions.
For his part, Robert Wood, the lead scientist for CAARE, is moving full steam ahead. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that models show that altering 15 percent of Earth’s marine clouds might cool the planet by approximately 1 degree.
One degree or 5 degrees — is any of it worth the outsized risks?
Not according to David Santillo, a senior scientist at Greenpeace International, who warned that “if marine cloud brightening were used at a scale that could cool the planet, the consequences would be hard to predict, or even to measure,” the Times reported.
“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.”
