ETC Group

News release

10 May 2010

As huge cloud-whitening experiment goes public, global coalition urges an immediate halt to geoengineering.

First UN talks on issue in thirty years begin today

http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org

Amidst revelations in this weekend’s London Times newspaper[1] that a team of scientists and engineers funded by billionaire Bill Gates are planning to carry out a 10,000 square kilometer field trial of controversial “cloud-whitening” technology, over one hundred civil society groups are urging governments meeting on biological diversity in Nairobi to stop risky geoengineering experiments now. Geoengineering refers to large-scale technological schemes to intentionally alter the planet’s systems as a quick fix for climate change.

The San-Francisco based “Silver Lining Project” directed by entrepreneur Kelly Wanser has so far received $ 300,000 dollars from Bill Gates to develop technologies that will increase the whiteness of marine clouds. Theoretically, executed on a massive scale, whiter clouds could increase the earth’s albedo, reflecting more sunlight back to space and thereby reduce global warming (without changing the composition of greenhouse gases which cause warming). The Silver Lining Project has decided to press ahead with plans to alter cloud-cover over an undisclosed 10,000 square kilometre patch of ocean (as large as the BP oil slick was a few days ago). If not stopped, the Gates ‘cloud-bleaching’ experiment would be the largest known geoengineering field trial to date. Its effects could include changes in rainfall and other altered weather patterns.  One site frequently spoken of by scientists engaged in this research is the Pacific coast of North and South America (specifically California, Ecuador, Peru and Chile).

Most worrisome, the Times revealed: “The British and American scientists involved do not intend to wait for international rules on technology that deliberately alters the climate.”  Such rules could be set in motion this week as scientists and diplomats from 193 nations meet under the auspices of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s scientific body. The meeting in Nairobi of SBSTTA 14 (Subsidiary Body of Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, running from May 10-21 2010) is the first time a UN Body has addressed geoengineering as a whole since the signing of the ENMOD Treaty in Geneva in 1976 that banned environmental modification for “hostile uses”.[2].

A new global coalition will be urging governments in Nairobi to adopt a  moratorium on all geoengineering experiments, just as the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a moratorium on ocean fertilization in 2008. Over one hundred organizations and individuals, including leading names in the environmental and global justice movement have joined H.O.M.E. campaign: Hands off Mother Earth–Our Home is not a Laboratory (www.handsoffmotherearth.org).

“Our Home Planet Earth should not be treated as a laboratory for risky geoengineering experiments,” says Silvia Ribeiro of  ETC Group in Mexico from the Nairobi SBSTTA meeting. “Human-caused climate change already threatens our lands, seas, food supply and rights.  We do not want to embark on another dangerous experiment with our planet. If they think that the people and governments of Ecuador, Peru or Chile – or anywhere else they might try — will stand idly by as they mess with our oceans, clouds and weather, they are in for a surpise.  Delegates here are shocked by these plans.”

“We knew Microsoft was developing cloud applications for computers but we didn’t expect this,” explained Jim Thomas of ETC Group, one of the founding organizations of the HOME campaign “Bill Gates and his cloud-wrenching cronies have no right to unilaterally change our seas and skies in this way. A global moratorium on geoengineering experiments just became a whole lot more urgent and the meeting in Nairobi is a fine place to ensure that it gets put into place rapidly.”

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Additional background:

What: Geoengineering refers to large-scale technological proposals to fix climate change by deliberately altering the climate, weather, atmosphere and oceans. Examples of geoengineering schemes include dumping nutrients into the sea to grow algal blooms (called Ocean Fertilization), turning extensive monoculture plantations into charcoal to bury in the soil (called biochar) and deliberately polluting the upper atmosphere with sulphur or aluminium particles to reflect sunlight (called stratospheric aerosols) as well as cloud-whitening. All of these experiments have large potential impacts on environment, biodiversity and the livelihoods of people especially in the Global South. Geoengineering advocates argue that there is no time for a global political agreement to address the real causes of climate change, so brave new scientists and wealthy entrepreneurs should save the world for all of us instead, with their own technofixes.

There are now several geoengineering experiments getting underway without any global oversight framework in place and larger experiments are planned. Geoengineers, including those behind the Gates cloud-wrenching test have  recently proposed “voluntary guidelines” rather than full independent multilateral oversight of the field. The proposal currently before SBSTTA 14 is for governments to look into the biodiversity implications of geoengineering (as well as to examine the ongoing work on ocean fertilization which began in 2008). Civil society groups are insisting experiments be stopped while governments examine the implications of such research.

Who: A new global campaign and coalition to stop Geoengineering experiments was launched last month at an international climate change meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This Hands Off Mother Earth (H.O.M.E.) Campaign is calling on governments through the UN to put a halt to unilateral open-air geoengineering experiments – arguing they are too risky and unjust. Supporters of the HOME campaign against geoengineering  include high profile environmentalists such as Bill McKibben, David Suzuki, Vandana Shiva and Naomi Klein. Organizations supporting the HOME campaign include ETC Group, Friends of the Earth International, Third World Network, Indigenous Environmental Network, la Via Campenina, Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact, Biofuelwatch and many others.

Show of Hands: Additionally members of the public have been uploading their pictures with their hands held up with messages against geoengineering to a growing photo petition at http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org. A giant poster displaying the protest is on display at SBSTTA 14 in Nairobi and ETC Group has three people at the meeting, working with campaign partners to inform delegates of the protest and the reasons behind it.

For more information about Hands Off Mother Earth Campaign see

http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org

In Nairobi:

*Neth Dano, neth@etcgroup.org cell & SMS + 63 917 532 9369

Nairobi cell: +254 712 605 622

Silvia Ribeiro, silvia@etcgroup.org cell & SMS +52 1 55 2653 3330

Nairobi cell: +254 712 601 660

*Molly Kane,  molly@etcgroup.org cell & SMS: + 1-613-797 6421

In Canada:

Diana Bronson - diana@etcgroup.org; cell: 514 629 9236

Jim Thomas -  jim@etcgroup.org cell: 514 516 5759

Pat Mooney – etc@etcgroup.org cell: 613 240 0045

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See Ben Webster, Bill Gates Pays for artificial clouds to beat greenhouse gases, 8 May 2010, Times Online at http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article7120011.ece

Convention on the Prohibition of Military or any other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.  Seehttp://www.fas.org/nuke/control/enmod/text/environ2.htm

Your hands:

past the center

Of the earth go straight

play the scientist and vandal

Sweating either way

“[Kintisch's] fast-paced tours through the science of geoengineering will help inform growing debates about whether governments should fund large research projects into climatic cooling and about how the various methods might be tested.”

“Kintisch…digs deeper…into explaining the details of how geoengineering might work — and why it would be so difficult to do well.”

“Kintisch…takes an insider’s view in Hack the Planet…[writing] from firmly within the world of science, and for an audience who’s comfortable with science, too.”

“…Kintisch is skeptical about the idea that we can tame and control ecosystems, let alone the whole planet.”

Hack the Planet: Author Eli Kintisch on The Age of Geoengineering

Last month 175 scientists from 14 countries met for a week in California to debate how to regulate planet-hacking techniques, including brightening clouds, growing massive algae blooms in the ocean or polluting the stratosphere with aerosol particles. These so-called geoengineering methods seek to cool the planet by removing carbon from the atmosphere or directly lowering the Earth’s temperature by blocking sunlight.  Just a few years ago, geoengineering was a fringe idea; now the UK Royal Society and the American Geophysical Union are calling for government research in this controversial field.

What is geoengineering, and why have climate scientists since 1900 been thinking about deliberate control of the climate? Why are scientists considering such radical steps now? Join Science magazine’s Eli Kintisch (Yale College ’99) as he discusses this new chapter in the climate crisis and his new book, Hack the Planet: Science’s Best Hope – or Worst Nightmare. For more info, please see: http://hacktheplanetbook.com/

When: April 22, 6-8 PM

Where: Kroon Hall, 195 Prospect Street, Room G-01.

Dinner will be served.

You’re likely to hear a chorus of dire warnings as we approach Earth Day, but there’s a serious shortage few pundits are talking about: air pollution. That’s right; the world is running short on air pollution, and if we continue to cut back on smoke pouring forth from industrial smokestacks, the increase in global warming could be profound.

Cleaner air, one of the signature achievements of the U.S. environmental movement, is certainly worth celebrating. Scientists estimate that the U.S. Clean Air Act has cut a major air pollutant called sulfate aerosols, for example, by 30% to 50% since the 1980s, helping greatly reduce cases of asthma and other respiratory problems.

But even as industrialized and developing nations alike steadily reduce aerosol pollution — caused primarily by burning coal — climate scientists are beginning to understand just how much these tiny particles have helped keep the planet cool. A silent benefit of sulfates, in fact, is that they’ve been helpfully blocking sunlight from striking the Earth for many decades, by brightening clouds and expanding their coverage. Emerging science suggests that their underappreciated impact has been incredible.

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From: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

What: An overview of geoengineering and an introduction to the associated policy challenges.

When: 12:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 20. Light reception starting at noon.

Where: AAAS Auditorium, 12^th and H Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. (Metro Center)

Speakers:

Introduction

Eli Kintisch, reporter for Science and author of “Hack the Planet” (Wiley, April 2010)

Panel I: Constructing a geoengineering research program

Moderator: Eli Kintisch, Science

Daniel Sarewitz, co-director, Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, Arizona State University

Michael MacCracken, chief scientist for climate change programs, Climate Institute

Panel II: Geoengineering as a new element of climate policy

Moderator: Vaughan Turekian, chief international officer, AAAS

Juliet Eilperin, environmental reporter, The Washington Post

Lee Lane,  resident fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and co-director, AEI Geoengineering Project

Contact: Earl Lane, 202-326-6431, elane@aaas.org

AAAS Panels to Discuss the Outlook for Geoengineering

The AAAS Center for Science, Technology, and Sustainability will host a discussion Tuesday, April 20, on research and policy questions surrounding geoengineering, the deliberate tinkering with the atmosphere to reduce the impact of global warming.

About 175 scientists from 14 nations met recently at the Asilomar conference center in California to discuss potential voluntary rules to govern research on geeoengineering, once considered fringe science but now receiving more attention.

Seating is limited. Members of the public should RSVP tointernational@aaas.org.

Reporters planning to attend should RSVP to Earl Lane, 202-326-6431, elane@aaas.org.

We covered, among other things:

why this issue has arisen right now

how conservatives view geoengineering

how the far left is thinking about the issue

why popular sentiment is going to grow against studying this idea

what it is like to be writing about geoengineering along with a Rolling Stone writer, Jeff Goodell…

I’m also taking questions at the online forums for this podcast.

Environmental Outlook: Geoengineering

Artificial trees to capture carbon, billions of tiny mirrors to reflect sunlight, sulfate to whiten clouds: promise and pitfalls of large scale radical ideas for addressing climate change

Guests

Robert Jackson

Nicholas Chair of Global Environmental Change and a professor in the Biology Department, Duke University

Margaret Leinen

Founder and CEO, The Climate Response Fund

Eli Kintisch

author of “Hack the Planet: Science’s Best Hope- or Worst Nightmare – for Averting Climate Catastrophe”