Blurring … the sun

According to Popular Mechanics, billionaire Bill Gates is “paying attention” to a new “enemy” … the Sun. Specifically, he and a number of other private donors are supporting a solar research project of Harvard University to prevent sunlight from reaching the Earth’s surface.

Last week, the US National Academy of Science, Technology and Medicine (NASEM) also released a new report calling for the government to spend at least $ 100 million on global engineering, a technology that causes controversial.

This is a general term for technologies that use physical, biological or chemical achievements to create the most favorable weather conditions for humans on the largest scale possible. Two famous examples of this technique are planting “raindrops” in clouds to create rains to prevent drought or the process of collecting CO2 and then isolating them.

Regarding the project to dim the sunlight, scientists have come up with different ways and these are collectively called “solar geoengineering”. The most common and well-studied method is to reflect the Sun off the Earth by spreading aerosol particles into the atmosphere.

However, up to now, this is still considered a risky idea because it can block most of the light from reaching the Earth and potentially cause disasters like in the movie Snowpiercer when the Earth is turned into a fruit. ice bridge.

Aerosol particles such as chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) act like a “spray” that can destroy the ozone layer. This is one of the factors causing climate change.

According to scientists, the worst case scenario is that humans face a severe climate emergency but do not know how to deal with it. This is precisely why they called for a large investment in “solar geoengineering” research.

Bill Gates-sponsored research aims to perform small-scale experiments in the atmosphere. “We plan to use a hot air balloon to send the spraying device into the atmosphere. Once the device is in place, a small amount of matter will be released to create an airship,” said one scientist. The air mass is disturbed. After that, the same hot air balloon will be used to test the effectiveness of the experiment. “

Recently, NASEM has established a committee of 16 international scientific companies to develop research in the field of “solar geoengineering”. Researcher Chris Field said: “This establishment is a solution to the need to fully understand the methods to deal with the climate crisis. Otherwise the study of ‘solar geoengineering’ will affect the world. well, by the time we need it as an option it’s too late. ” In addition, he mentioned the role of philanthropists such as billionaire Bill Gates in combating climate change.

Up to now, it is still difficult to say whether a Gates-sponsored project is a good idea. Currently, all scientists and donors have only proposed to conduct research on a small scale.