![](\"https:\/\/organicconsumers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/theideais.png\" "\\"theideais\\"")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Why Is Blocking the Sun Being Quietly Normalized?<\/h1><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>February 21, 2024\u00a0 |\u00a0 by Alexis Baden-Mayer
\nOrganic Consumers Association<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Officially, there\u2019s an <\/span>international moratorium<\/span><\/a> on attempts to block the sun, as well as a <\/span>U.N. Environmental Modification Convention<\/span><\/a>, but rogue \u201c<\/span>Greenfinger<\/span><\/a>\u201d billionaires like <\/span>Bill Gates<\/span><\/a> have continued their <\/span>dangerous experiments<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSince the Vietnam War\u2019s <\/span>Project Popeye<\/span><\/a> scandal, the U.S. government has positioned the Pentagon\u2019s <\/span>weather modification<\/span><\/a> work and <\/span>DARPA funding<\/span><\/a> as countering the potential \u201c<\/span>security threat<\/span><\/a>\u201d geoengineering posed.<\/span><\/p>\nRecently there\u2019s been a shift. The U.S. has begun to normalize solar geoengineering as a \u201cclimate solution.\u201d In 2021, the <\/span>National Academies of Sciences<\/span><\/a> issued a report calling for a $200 million 5-year investment in solar geoengineering research, and in 2023 President Biden released a <\/span>solar radiation modification (SRM) framework<\/span><\/a>, claiming that \u201cSRM offers the possibility of cooling as the planet significantly on a timescale of a few years.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAround the same time, the European Union floated \u201c<\/span>a potential international framework<\/span><\/a>\u201d for solar geoengineering.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/i>Subscribe<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/i>Donate<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/i>Take Action<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Meanwhile, climate-profiteering corporations are lobbying for <\/span>solar geoengineering to be included in the offset market<\/span><\/a> being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.<\/span><\/p>\nEven \u201cenvironmental\u201d non-profit advocacy groups are in on it!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)\u2019s official <\/span>position on geoengineering<\/span><\/a> is that, \u201cDeliberate climate interventions such as albedo modification should not be undertaken for the foreseeable future as they present serious ecological, moral and geopolitical concerns.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBut, EDF has publicly <\/span>supported research<\/span><\/a> into geoengineering since 2010, when it co-founded the <\/span>Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative<\/span><\/a> with the Royal Society and The World Academy of Sciences.<\/span><\/p>\nIn early 2024, <\/span>Climate Wire<\/span><\/a> reported that EDF organized a private two-day meeting of climate scientists, environmental activists and philanthropists \u201cto prepare for an expected surge of Silicon Valley funding related to last-ditch measures for slowing global warming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhat is solar geoengineering?<\/b><\/p>\n
According to Dr. Chukwumerije Okereke, director of the Center for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University in Nigeria, in his New York Times essay, \u201c<\/span>My Continent Is Not Your Giant Climate Laboratory<\/span><\/a>\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\nThe solar engineering technology attracting the most attention would use balloons or aircraft to spray large quantities of aerosols \u2014 tiny particles of, for example, sulfur dioxide or engineered nanoparticles \u2014 into the stratosphere to dim the sunlight. It\u2019s called solar radiation management and it\u2019s highly speculative. \u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nOther proposed techniques include covering deserts with plastic; genetically engineering plants to have brighter, more reflective leaves; creating or making clouds whiter; and deploying millions of mirrors in space. The point of all of them is to counter warming by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the planet and reflecting it back to the stratosphere. \u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nThese technologies would also theoretically need to be deployed essentially forever to keep warming at bay. Stopping would unleash the suppressed warming of the carbon dioxide still accumulating in the atmosphere in a temperature spike known as \u201ctermination shock.\u201d One study found that the temperature change after ending solar radiation management could be up to four times as large as what\u2019s being caused by climate change itself.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\nMore than 450 academics from 61 countries around the world have signed an open letter calling for an <\/span>International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering<\/span><\/a>. They have five demands:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- No public funding.<\/span><\/li>\n
- No outdoor experiments.<\/span><\/li>\n
- No patents.<\/span><\/li>\n
- No deployment.<\/span><\/li>\n
- No support in international institutions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Over 100 international civil society organizations have denounced geoengineering and demanded an immediate stop to all open-air experiments in the <\/span>Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME) Manifesto<\/span><\/a>. Concerns they list include:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Solar geoengineering as a weapon of war.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Funding from the fossil fuel industry, which would like to use solar geoengineering as an excuse to continue with oil, gas and coal burning.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Computer modeling that predicts solar geoengineering would change the behavior of the Asian and African monsoons, diverting the <\/span>water that billions of people need to drink and to grow their food<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Solar geoengineering is a false solution that is delaying necessary reductions in energy consumption and distracting from the only tried-and-true way to draw down carbon.<\/span><\/p>\nCuts should start at the <\/span>Pentagon<\/span><\/a>. The U.S. Department of Defense is the single largest institutional fossil fuel user in the world and emits more greenhouse gases than 140 nations combined.<\/span><\/p>\nRegenerative organic agriculture<\/span><\/a> is the only tried-and-true way to remove excess greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. It is a holistic approach with many benefits, including cleaner water, more-nutritious food, happier animals, healthier people and thriving local economies. Healthy soil soaks up and retains water, making crops more resilient to droughts and floods. Going organic ends reliance on <\/span>pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers<\/span><\/a>, and spares people the incalculable suffering these toxins cause.<\/span><\/p>\nBy contrast, solar geoengineering does nothing about greenhouse gas pollution and has no environmental, health or economic benefits (aside from to the fossil fuel industry). Even if it did work to reduce global temperatures, which is unproven, it would do nothing to restore depleted sources of water for drinking and irrigation.<\/span><\/p>\nSolar geoengineering itself is a source of harmful pollution. Aerosolized toxins used in solar geoengineering include:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Coal fly ash<\/span><\/a>, which <\/span>contains<\/span><\/a> toxic levels of arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, aluminum, barium, boron, and chlorine. The idea of using waste from the burning of coal or oil for solar geoengineering was first pitched by scientists funded by Citgo and Philips Petroleum who published \u201c<\/span>Weather Modification by Carbon Dust Absorption of Solar Energy<\/span><\/a>\u201d in 1976.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Sulfuric acid<\/span><\/a>, a carcinogen that can trigger a range of reactions from acute exposure, depending on the concentration. Cough and irritation occur at concentrations less than 8 ppm. At greater than 100 ppm, death can result.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Hydrogen sulfide<\/span><\/a>, which causes neurological symptoms such as fatigue, loss of appetite, headache, irritability, poor memory and dizziness at exposures greater than 28 milligrams per cubic meter, respiratory distress at exposures greater than 560 mg\/m3 and death at exposures greater than 700 mg\/m3.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Carbonyl sulfide<\/span><\/a>, which can result in profuse salivation, headache, vertigo, amnesia, confusion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cardiac arrhythmia, weakness, muscle cramps and unconsciousness at sublethal exposure and sudden collapse, convulsions, and death from respiratory paralysis at concentrations greater than 1000 ppm.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Black carbon<\/span><\/a>, which is a possible carcinogen that can cause cough, sputum production, bronchitis, pneumoconiosis, and decrease in lung function, as well as tiredness, chest pain, headache, respiratory irritation and discoloration of eyelids and conjunctivae.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Aluminum<\/span><\/a>, which has some evidence of carcinogenicity and can cause wheezing, dyspnea, and impaired lung function, pulmonary fibrosis, dilation and hypertrophy of the right side of the heart, decreased red blood cell hemoglobin, finger clubbing, lymphocytic alveolitis and blastic transformation of peripheral blood lymphocytes.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Barium titanate<\/span><\/a>, which is associated with respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, metabolic and neurologic effects.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Few policy makers in the U.S. have tried to wrap their heads around this issue, but a group of Rhode Island state legislators have drafted a bill, the <\/span>Atmosphere Protection Act<\/span><\/a>. That bill is packed with information and reading it is like drinking from a firehose, but it\u2019s a great start at the public education and action needed on this important issue. There\u2019s also a bill in New Hampshire, the <\/span>Clean Atmosphere Preservation Act<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n
February 21, 2024\u00a0 |\u00a0 by Alexis Baden-Mayer
\nOrganic Consumers Association<\/p>\n<\/div>
Officially, there\u2019s an <\/span>international moratorium<\/span><\/a> on attempts to block the sun, as well as a <\/span>U.N. Environmental Modification Convention<\/span><\/a>, but rogue \u201c<\/span>Greenfinger<\/span><\/a>\u201d billionaires like <\/span>Bill Gates<\/span><\/a> have continued their <\/span>dangerous experiments<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since the Vietnam War\u2019s <\/span>Project Popeye<\/span><\/a> scandal, the U.S. government has positioned the Pentagon\u2019s <\/span>weather modification<\/span><\/a> work and <\/span>DARPA funding<\/span><\/a> as countering the potential \u201c<\/span>security threat<\/span><\/a>\u201d geoengineering posed.<\/span><\/p>\n Recently there\u2019s been a shift. The U.S. has begun to normalize solar geoengineering as a \u201cclimate solution.\u201d In 2021, the <\/span>National Academies of Sciences<\/span><\/a> issued a report calling for a $200 million 5-year investment in solar geoengineering research, and in 2023 President Biden released a <\/span>solar radiation modification (SRM) framework<\/span><\/a>, claiming that \u201cSRM offers the possibility of cooling as the planet significantly on a timescale of a few years.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Around the same time, the European Union floated \u201c<\/span>a potential international framework<\/span><\/a>\u201d for solar geoengineering.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div> Meanwhile, climate-profiteering corporations are lobbying for <\/span>solar geoengineering to be included in the offset market<\/span><\/a> being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.<\/span><\/p>\n Even \u201cenvironmental\u201d non-profit advocacy groups are in on it!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)\u2019s official <\/span>position on geoengineering<\/span><\/a> is that, \u201cDeliberate climate interventions such as albedo modification should not be undertaken for the foreseeable future as they present serious ecological, moral and geopolitical concerns.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But, EDF has publicly <\/span>supported research<\/span><\/a> into geoengineering since 2010, when it co-founded the <\/span>Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative<\/span><\/a> with the Royal Society and The World Academy of Sciences.<\/span><\/p>\n In early 2024, <\/span>Climate Wire<\/span><\/a> reported that EDF organized a private two-day meeting of climate scientists, environmental activists and philanthropists \u201cto prepare for an expected surge of Silicon Valley funding related to last-ditch measures for slowing global warming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n What is solar geoengineering?<\/b><\/p>\n According to Dr. Chukwumerije Okereke, director of the Center for Climate Change and Development at Alex Ekwueme Federal University in Nigeria, in his New York Times essay, \u201c<\/span>My Continent Is Not Your Giant Climate Laboratory<\/span><\/a>\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n The solar engineering technology attracting the most attention would use balloons or aircraft to spray large quantities of aerosols \u2014 tiny particles of, for example, sulfur dioxide or engineered nanoparticles \u2014 into the stratosphere to dim the sunlight. It\u2019s called solar radiation management and it\u2019s highly speculative. \u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Other proposed techniques include covering deserts with plastic; genetically engineering plants to have brighter, more reflective leaves; creating or making clouds whiter; and deploying millions of mirrors in space. The point of all of them is to counter warming by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the planet and reflecting it back to the stratosphere. \u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n These technologies would also theoretically need to be deployed essentially forever to keep warming at bay. Stopping would unleash the suppressed warming of the carbon dioxide still accumulating in the atmosphere in a temperature spike known as \u201ctermination shock.\u201d One study found that the temperature change after ending solar radiation management could be up to four times as large as what\u2019s being caused by climate change itself.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n More than 450 academics from 61 countries around the world have signed an open letter calling for an <\/span>International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering<\/span><\/a>. They have five demands:<\/span><\/p>\n Over 100 international civil society organizations have denounced geoengineering and demanded an immediate stop to all open-air experiments in the <\/span>Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME) Manifesto<\/span><\/a>. Concerns they list include:<\/span><\/p>\n Solar geoengineering is a false solution that is delaying necessary reductions in energy consumption and distracting from the only tried-and-true way to draw down carbon.<\/span><\/p>\n Cuts should start at the <\/span>Pentagon<\/span><\/a>. The U.S. Department of Defense is the single largest institutional fossil fuel user in the world and emits more greenhouse gases than 140 nations combined.<\/span><\/p>\n Regenerative organic agriculture<\/span><\/a> is the only tried-and-true way to remove excess greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. It is a holistic approach with many benefits, including cleaner water, more-nutritious food, happier animals, healthier people and thriving local economies. Healthy soil soaks up and retains water, making crops more resilient to droughts and floods. Going organic ends reliance on <\/span>pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers<\/span><\/a>, and spares people the incalculable suffering these toxins cause.<\/span><\/p>\n By contrast, solar geoengineering does nothing about greenhouse gas pollution and has no environmental, health or economic benefits (aside from to the fossil fuel industry). Even if it did work to reduce global temperatures, which is unproven, it would do nothing to restore depleted sources of water for drinking and irrigation.<\/span><\/p>\n Solar geoengineering itself is a source of harmful pollution. Aerosolized toxins used in solar geoengineering include:<\/span><\/p>\n Few policy makers in the U.S. have tried to wrap their heads around this issue, but a group of Rhode Island state legislators have drafted a bill, the <\/span>Atmosphere Protection Act<\/span><\/a>. That bill is packed with information and reading it is like drinking from a firehose, but it\u2019s a great start at the public education and action needed on this important issue. There\u2019s also a bill in New Hampshire, the <\/span>Clean Atmosphere Preservation Act<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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