‘Greenfinger’: An Environmentalist Wants To Cool The Planet By Polluting Stratosphere Similar to Bond Villain

An environmentalist runs a startup that is similar to a startup. Bond villain To block sunlight and ease the weather, it intentionally pollutes the skies with sulfur. global warmingAccording to a top scientific journal.

Make Sunsets was founded in California by Luke Iseman. The weather balloons release sulfur into the atmosphere to reflect more light back into space. according to MIT Technology Review. But critics say the science behind Iseman’s scheme, which he calls geoengineering activism, is flawed and could backfire.

“We joke slash not joke that this is partly a company and partly a cult,” Iseman, who founded an earlier company. now-defunct company called Boxouse that made homes out of shipping containers, told the journal.

Critics worry that the project could lead to unanticipated consequences. This could cause significant upheaval or even death. “geopolitical conflicts” The affected regions. The balloons will be launched from Mexico by the company, according to the publication. This is because it is not subject to serious scientific oversight. Make Sunsets wants to make the operation profitable by selling it. “cooling credits,” The report states that

Start-up @MakeSunsets In order to cool the Earth, we release reflective sulfur particles into the atmosphere.

Each cooling credit is $10 and advertised as ‘offsetting 1 ton CO2 for a full year’. 1/https://t.co/FdG9EbFiBu

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) December 27, 2022

Iseman stated that he expected to be tried and convicted. “making me look like the Bond villain is going to be helpful to certain groups.” He claimed that such drastic intervention was necessary to combat the danger of global warming.

“It’s morally wrong, in my opinion, for us not to be doing this [and] to do this as quickly and safely as we can,” He stated.

Scientists told the publication Iseman doesn’t know what he’s doing, with one likening his effort to a Chinese scientist’s decision to use CRISPR to edit embryonic DNA even as the ethics of such a step were being debated.

“The current state of science is not good enough … to either reject, or to accept, let alone implement” Janos Pasztor is the executive director of solar geoengineering Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative, said to MIT Technology Review. “To go ahead with implementation at this stage is a very bad idea.”

Iseman’s radical scheme may have been foreshadowed by David Victor, an international relations expert at the University of California, San Diego, who warned in a 2018 Wired article A rogue actor could attempt to geoengineer climate.

“A lone Greenfinger, self-appointed protector of the planet and working with a small fraction of the [Bill] Gates bank account, could force a lot of geoengineering on his own,” Victor said this to refer to the villain from the 1964 James Bond movie “Goldfinger.”

Iseman stated that his first two balloon launches were in Baja California, Mexico. He acknowledged that he does not know the fate of the balloons or their effects, as they were launched without any monitoring equipment.

“This was firmly in science project territory,” He said: “Basically, it was to confirm that I could do it.”

He stated that Make Sunsets plans to increase sulfur payloads and add monitoring equipment. Data will also be published for future launches. The sale of $10 could fund the effort. “cooling credits” For every gram of particles that are released into the stratosphere. He claimed that each gram could offset a ton carbon.

SilverLining’s executive director Kelly Wanser said that buying Iseman credits would be foolish.

“From a business perspective, reflective cooling effects and risks cannot currently be quantified in any meaningful way, making the offering a speculative form of ‘junk credit’ that is unlikely to have value to climate credit markets,” Wanser spoke to MIT Technology Review.