Solar geoengineering

From Harvard's Solar Geoengineering Program

Solar geoengineering refers to a process in which dust is sprayed into the atmosphere in order to "reflect solar radiation back to space" with the intent to dim the sun and therefore, avert global warming. Bill Gates and the Biden administration have supported study into Solar geoengineering.

After controversy erupted over the "horribly stupid" plan, multiple "fact checkers" came to Bill Gates defense.,,,

Sun Dimming Method

David Keith, Frank Keutsch, Debra Weisenstein and John Dykema from Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) wrote the initial paper on a method of Solar geoengineering "that may be able to cool the planet while simultaneously repairing ozone damage."

Abstract:

"Injecting sulfate aerosol into the stratosphere, the most frequently analyzed proposal for solar geoengineering, may reduce some climate risks, but it would also entail new risks, including ozone loss and heating of the lower tropical stratosphere, which, in turn, would increase water vapor concentration causing additional ozone loss and surface warming. We propose a method for stratospheric aerosol climate modification that uses a solid aerosol composed of alkaline metal salts that will convert hydrogen halides and nitric and sulfuric acids into stable salts to enable stratospheric geoengineering while reducing or reversing ozone depletion. Rather than minimizing reactive effects by reducing surface area using high refractive index materials, this method tailors the chemical reactivity. Specifically, we calculate that injection of calcite (CaCO3) aerosol particles might reduce net radiative forcing while simultaneously increasing column ozone toward its preanthropogenic baseline. A radiative forcing of −1 W⋅m−2, for example, might be achieved with a simultaneous 3.8% increase in column ozone using 2.1 Tg⋅y−1 of 275-nm radius calcite aerosol. Moreover, the radiative heating of the lower stratosphere would be roughly 10-fold less than if that same radiative forcing had been produced using sulfate aerosol. Although solar geoengineering cannot substitute for emissions cuts, it may supplement them by reducing some of the risks of climate change. Further research on this and similar methods could lead to reductions in risks and improved efficacy of solar geoengineering methods.

Scientists Push for Solar Geoengineering

A letter dated February 27, 2023 signed by scientists affirm "support for research on atmospheric aerosols and their potential to increase the reflection of sunlight from the atmosphere to address climate risk":

From the introduction:

Given the severity of climate change, scientists and scientific bodies have recommended research on potential approaches to increasing the reflection of sunlight (or release of long wave radiation) from the atmosphere, referred to as “solar radiation modification” (SRM), to slow climate warming and reduce climate impacts. In particular, this research is important for understanding their potential for responding to climate change rapidly, in order to reduce the dangers to people and ecosystems of the climate warming that is projected to occur over the next few decades while society reduces greenhouse gas emissions and concentrations in the atmosphere.

Signatories

• Sarah J. Doherty PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
• Philip J. Rasch PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Retired, Seattle (USA)
• Robert Wood PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
• Jim Haywood, PhD, University of Exeter (UK)
• Piers M. Forster PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Leeds (UK)
• James E. Hansen, PhD, Columbia University Earth Institute, New York, NY (USA)
• Govindasamy Bala PhD, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (India)
• Alan Robock PhD, Dept. of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, NJ (USA)
• Hansi Singh PhD, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, BC (Canada)
• Olivier Boucher PhD, Institute Pierre-Simon Laplace, Sorbonne Université / CNRS, Paris (France)
• Paolo Artaxo PhD, Instituto de Fisica, Universidade de Sao Paulo (Brazil)
• David L. Mitchell PhD, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada (USA)
• Seong Soo Yum PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, Yonsei University (South Korea)
• Michael S. Diamond PhD, Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Science, Florida State University (USA)
• Anna Possner PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, Geothe University, Frankfurt, Hesse (Germany)
• Philip Stier PhD, Department of Physics, University of Oxford (UK)
• Stephen G. Warren PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
• Prof. Heri Kuswanto, Center for Disaster Management and Climate Change, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) (Indonesia)
• David Keith PhD, Environmental Science & Engineering and Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge MA (USA)
• Trude Storelvmo PhD, Department of Geoscience, University of Oslo (Norway)
• Timothy S. Bates, PhD, CICOES, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (USA)
• Haruki Hirasawa PhD, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, BC (Canada)
• Fabian Hoffmann, Dr., Meteorological Institute, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (Germany)
• John T. Fasullo PhD, Astrophysical, Planetary and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder (USA)
• Douglas MacMartin, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (USA)
• Amadou Coulibaly PhD, Institut Polytechnique Rural de Formation et de Recherche Appliquée [IPR/IFRA] de Katibougou, Bamako (Mali)
• Becky Alexander PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
• Daniele Visioni, PhD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca NY (USA)
• Pornampai Narenpitak PhD, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center [NECTEC], National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Pathum Thani (Thailand)
• Ben Kravitz PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington (USA)
• Franklin J. Opijah PhD, Earth and Climate Sciences, University of Nairobi (Kenya)
• Tianle Yuan, PhD, GESTAR-II, University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Climate and Radiation Lab, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA)
• Abu Syed PhD, Climate Change Adaptation and Risk Assessment Expert, C4RE, Dhaka (Bangladesh)
• Ehsan Erfani PhD, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV (USA)
• Ryan Eastman PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
• Duncan Watson-Parris PhD, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California San Diego (USA)
• Mou Leong Tan PhD, Hydroclimatic Modelling, Universiti Sains Malaysia (Malaysia)
• Lili Xia PhD, Dept. of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, NJ (USA)
• Lucas McMichael PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
• Matthew Henry PhD, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Exeter (UK)
• Abdoulaye Ballo PhD, West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) Competence Centre (CoC), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)
• Valentina Aquila, PhD, American University (USA)
• Sebastian D. Eastham PhD, Center for Global Change Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (USA)
• Gabriel Chiodo PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (Switzerland)
• Armin Sorooshian PhD, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (USA)
• Blaz Gasparini, PhD, University of Vienna, Vienna (Austria)
• Kelsey E. Roberts PhD, Marine Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA (USA)
• Joel Thornton PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington (USA)
• Timofei Sukhodolov PhD, Chemistry-Climate Modelling, Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos and World Radiation Center, Davos (Switzerland)
• Khalil Karami, PhD, Leipzig University, Leipzig (Germany)
• Paul B. Goddard PhD, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (USA)
• Alfonso Fernandez PhD, Department of Geography, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción (Chile)
• Cheng-En Yang, PhD, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (USA)
• Frank N. Keutsch PhD, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (USA)
• Hosea O. Patrick PhD, Geography, Geomatics, and Environment, University of Toronto (Canada)
• Valerio Lembo PhD, CNR-ISAC, Rome (Italy)
• Kyoungock Choi PhD, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
• Forrest M. Hoffman PhD, Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Lab, Tennessee (USA)
• Robyn Schofield PhD, School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Melbourne (Australia)
• Jyoti Singh PhD, Dept. of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, NJ (USA)
• Claudia Wieners PhD, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research, Utrecht (IMAU), Utrecht University, Utrecht (Netherlands)
• Arshad Arjunan Nair PhD, University at Albany, State University of New York (USA)
• Chris Lennard PhD, University of Cape Town (South Africa)
• Paris Rivera PhD, Universidad Mariano Gálvez de Guatemala (Guatemala)
• Alan Gadian PhD, National Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, University of Leeds (UK)
• Bassem Sabra PhD, Notre Dame University, Louaize (Lebanon)
• Sir David King PhD, Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University (UK)
• Isabelle Steinke PhD, Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)
• Michael Schulz PhD, Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Oslo (Norway)
• Herman Russchenberg PhD, Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)
• Nicholas Lutsko PhD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UCSD, San Diego, California (USA)
• Kate Ricke PhD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and School of Global Policy & Strategy, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA (USA)
• Richard Gammon PhD, University of Washington Professor Emeritus, Chemistry, Oceanography, Atmospheric Sciences, Seattle (USA)
• Wener Ochoa PhD, University of San Carlos of Guatemala (Guatemala)
• Albin J. Gasiewski PhD, University of Colorado at Boulder, Center for Environmental Technology, Dept of ECEE, Boulder, CO (USA)
• Fangqun Yu PhD, Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, State University of New York at Albany (USA)
• Gerrit de Leeuw PhD, Professor Emeritus (Netherlands)
• Don Wuebbles PhD, University of Illinois (USA)
• Russell Seitz PhD, Fellow of the Department of Physics, Emeritus, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (USA)
• Jorge Ivan Cifuentes Castillo, University of San Carlos of Guatemala, Water and Circular Economy Researcher (Guatemala)
• Yaping Zhou PhD, University of Maryland Baltimore County & NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA)
• Baylor Fox-Kemper PhD, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (USA)
• Alicia Karspeck PhD, SilverLining (USA)
• Shaun Fitzgerald, Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge University (UK)
• Alice Wells, PhD Candidate, Environmental Intelligence, University of Exeter (UK)
• Mahjabeen Rahman, PhD Candidate, Rutgers University, NJ (USA)
• Ilaria Quaglia, PhD student, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila (Italy)
• Travis Aerenson, PhD Candidate, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
• Hongwei Sun, PhD Candidate, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (USA)
• Adrian Hindes, PhD Candidate, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT (Australia)
• Celeste Tong, PhD student, Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (USA)
• Yan Zhang, PhD Candidate, Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (USA)
• Burgess Langshaw Power, PhD Candidate, Balsillie School of International Affairs – University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON (Canada)
• Marc Alessi, PhD Candidate, Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO (USA)
• Nina Grant, PhD student, Atmospheric Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (USA)
• Jessica S. Wan, PhD student, Climate Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA (USA)
• Iris de Vries, PhD student, Climate Physics, ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
• John Virgin, PhD student, University of Waterloo, Department of Geography of Environmental Management, Waterloo, Ontario (Canada)
• Alistair Duffey, PhD student, Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, Earth Sciences, University College London (UK)
• Marissa Saenger, PhD student, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego (USA)
• Cindy Wang, PhD student, Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (USA)

Bill Gates and Friends

On February 17, 2021, the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, reported that "...Bill Gates is financially backing the development of technology that could dim the sun."

"The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016. There are many attempts and experiments trying to control global warming. Solar geoengineering refers to proposed approaches to cool the Earth by reflecting solar radiation back to space. Some of these experimental ideas range from sending a giant mirror into space to spraying aerosols in the stratosphere. The two main approaches being researched are stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) and marine cloud brightening (MCB). Microsoft’s billionaire founder Bill Gates is financially backing the development of technology that could dim the sun. The Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx) was launched by Harvard University scientists. The goal of the experiment is to examine this solution by spraying calcium carbonate (CaCO3) dust into the atmosphere. Stratospheric aerosol injections could cool the planet in a similar way to a large volcanic eruption. For example, when a volcano erupts, it sends an ash cloud high into the atmosphere. Released sulphur dioxide in the plume combines with water to form sulfuric acid aerosols. These aerosols are able to reflect incoming sunlight. According to the USGS, “Yes, volcanoes can affect weather and the Earth’s climate. Following the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, cooler than normal temperatures were recorded worldwide and brilliant sunsets and sunrises were attributed to this eruption that sent fine ash and gases high into the stratosphere, forming a large volcanic cloud that drifted around the world.”

In a December 15, 2020, Harvard University article by SEAS press team, “Injecting light-reflecting aerosols into the stratosphere — known as solar geoengineering —could be used in conjunction with emissions reduction to lower the risks of a climate change and cool the planet. But deliberately introducing particles into the atmosphere may also carry significant risks, and those dangers may increase depending on what aerosols are used. Sulfate aerosols, for example, could contribute to ozone damage and stratospheric heating.

In 2016, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) used computer models to find that calcium carbonate (CaCO3) could not only reflect light and cool the planet but also counter ozone loss by neutralizing emissions-borne acids in the stratosphere — like an antiacid for the atmosphere.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report that suggests the SCoPEx procedure could possibly lower global temperatures by a full 1.5° C. However, global cooling could bring serious risks, such as crop failures and cold weather freezes. The United States, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia blocked a 2019 United Nations assessment of global geoengineering plans.

Harvard’s Solar Geoengineering Research Program (SGRP) is funded by the following foundations and individuals. All donations are philanthropic gifts.

• J. Baker Foundation
• The Blue Marble Fund
• OW Caspersen Foundation
• The Crows Nest Foundation
• The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• Constance C. and Linwood A. Lacy Jr. Foundation
• The Open Philanthropy Project
• Pritzker Innovation Fund
• Ronin Private Investments LLC
• The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• The Tansy Foundation
• Teza Technologies LLC
• VoLo Foundation
• The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
• Laura and John Arnold
• G. Leonard Baker, Jr.
• Alan Eustace
• Howard Fischer
• Ross Garon
• Bill Gates
• Jonathan Goldberg
• Drew Myers
• John Rapaport
• Chris and Crystal Sacca
• Michael Smith
• Andrew Stark
• Bill Trenchard

SCoPEx also received in-kind support from NOAA, which provided the POPS instrument that will provide size-resolved measurements of particle concentration.