An early experiment toward using sun-dimming technology to cool global warming has opponents fearing a slippery slope toward engineering the climate
...excerpts.....
OSLO, Dec 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Harvard University scientists plan to fly a test balloon above Sweden next year to help advance
research into dimming sunlight to cool the Earth, alarming environmentalists opposed to solar geoengineering.
Open-air research into spraying tiny, sun-reflecting particles into the stratosphere, to offset global warming,
has been stalled for years by controversies - including that it could discourage needed cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
In a small step, the Swedish Space Corporation agreed this week to help
Harvard researchers launch a balloon near the Arctic town of Kiruna next June. It would carry a gondola with 600 kg of scientific equipment 20 km (12 miles) high.
"There are very many real concerns" about the risks of climate change and solar geoengineering, said David Keith, who is involved in the project and is a professor of applied physics at the
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
"Understanding them requires a range of activities including experiments," said Keith, who is also a professor of public policy at the
Harvard Kennedy School.
The unmanned flight had originally been planned for the United States but was moved, partly because of U.S. restrictions caused by coronavirus.
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A SLIPPERY SLOPE?
But opponents see the Swedish balloon as a step on a slippery slope towards engineering the climate with an artificial sunshade -
something with potentially large and hard-to-predict risks, such as shifts in global rain patterns.
"There is no merit in this test except to enable the next step. You can't test the trigger of a bomb and say
‘This can't possibly do any harm'," said Niclas Hällström, director of the Swedish green think-tank WhatNext?
...the rest at link......
...(quick comment from saki.... how much $$$ has Harvard received from China, over the years?)..... ...
An early experiment toward using sun-dimming technology to cool global warming has opponents fearing a slippery slope toward engineering the climate
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