Latest news with #geoengineering
Fast Company
3 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Why the U.K. is betting $76 million on solar engineering to help cool the planet
The climate crisis is worsening. Last year was the warmest on record, global sea ice levels are at a record low, and the economic toll of extreme natural disasters continues to mount. Just this week, the World Meteorological Organization said the global average temperature is likely to rise nearly 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels within the next five years, with 'growing negative impact on our economies, our daily lives, our ecosystems and our planet.' Experts are adamant that the only way to slow the warming is to stop burning the fossil fuels that create the greenhouse effect. And yet, in 2024, emissions reached a new high. As the WMO's Secretary-General Celeste Saulo put it: 'We are heading in the wrong direction.' And as the temperature rises, so does the chance that Earth's natural systems will cross thresholds that trigger irreversible and cascading destruction. The encroaching threat of these tipping points is why the British government's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is pouring £57 million ($76 million) into studying 'climate cooling approaches.' That's a fancy way of referring to climate geoengineering, or intentionally tinkering with the Earth's weather systems in an attempt to cool things down. More specifically, ARIA is examining whether we might be able to reflect some sunlight away from the surface of the Earth and back into space.
Telegraph
17-05-2025
- Science
- Telegraph
Dimming the Sun ‘not the way to fight climate change'
Dimming the Sun is not the solution to climate change, the majority of the public has been found to believe. Polling by YouGov revealed that Britons are sceptical about plans to dim the Sun though geoengineering projects, with more than half unwilling to support climate tinkering. The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), a government body, announced nearly £57 million last week for 21 'climate cooling' projects, including five outdoor field trials. It will include experiments to reflect sunlight back into space by brightening clouds, injecting aerosols into the atmosphere and using computer modelling to determine the feasibility of building a giant sunshade in space. But polling by YouGov has showed that while the majority still believes that the worst impact of climate change can be mitigated by humans, far fewer think geoengineering is the right solution. Just 16 per cent said they would be willing to support stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), in which particles are released into the atmosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions. Likewise, only 31 per cent said they would back marine cloud brightening, where sea salt particles are sprayed into clouds to increase their reflectivity, and just 18 per cent approve of research into space sunshades.
The Independent
11-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
The geoengineering the British government is funding feels like a last resort in combating climate change
This week, the UK's Advanced Research & Invention Agency (ARIA) announced £56.8 million to fund 21 geoengineering projects around the world over the next five years. As a cautious fan of science fiction, this news shook me to the core. A few years ago I read Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future, and this week's news brought me back to those pages. The announcement felt less of a scientific milestone and more like a plot point for that dystopian novel, which opens with catastrophic heatwaves I hope we never live to see, but increasingly fear we might. If you're unfamiliar with the term, geoengineering refers to large-scale technological interventions in the Earth's climate system, designed to counteract the effects of climate change. This can include techniques such as cloud seeding to increase rainfall, or more radical proposals such as injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and cool the planet. While this week's announcement is among the most significant geoengineering experiments funded by a government ever, unfortunately these kinds of experiments to manipulate the weather are not new, and currently largely unregulated. Australia has been experimenting with cloud seeding at different scales since 1947. This has involved releasing aerosols or silver iodide into clouds at different scales, hoping to induce rainfall. Saudi Arabia has been using silver iodide to induce rainfall for the past 20 years. Malaysia started cloud seeding in 2024 to combat drought, and earlier this year, Thailand began spraying dry ice into the air above Bangkok to disperse smog and encourage rain. But these efforts are relatively small-scale compared with China, which currently runs cloud seeding projects to reduce drought risk across an area larger than India. As the impacts of drought only get worse, there is a chance that these weather manipulation experiments, and potentially far worse, will become far more common around the world. Scarier still is that the world's billionaire class, rather than governments alone, could become rogue weather makers of their own. Take, for example, California businessman Russ George, who, in 2012, dumped more than 100 tons of iron sulfate into the Pacific Ocean in the hope it might save the world. At the time, he hoped he might stimulate a phytoplankton bloom that might absorb carbon dioxide, and he did so violating several global agreements, and setting off alarm bells over the potential ecological consequences. Soon after, a massive plankton bloom was noticed from space, it is debatable what caused it, but what's not debatable is that Canadian authorities also reported a significant increase in concentrations of neurotoxins in the water off the coast. Russ George became a global pariah soon after. The reality is that we simply don't know what type of side effects these experiments will cause, and many countries such as Kenya, Colombia, Mexico and Fiji believe it's a risk we just can't take. At the UN Environment Assembly last year, they pushed for a non-use agreement on these types of geoengineering experiments, known as solar radiation management, out of fear that it could unintentionally shift monsoon patterns or intensify droughts. For others, the risk is that it becomes a distraction, or even a moral hazard. They would argue that geoengineering will become an excuse that is seeking to deal with the symptoms of the climate crisis, its droughts and heatwaves, and not the actual cause. Considering that last year's Production Gap Report found that governments are planning to produce more than twice the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than we can afford to stay under 1.5C, I can understand their concern. But in other ways, I worry that even though the global expansion of geoengineering parallels that of AI, both tread a fine line between the potential for global benefits and dystopian horror, and both have split their respective scientific communities. While it might seem like a lifetime ago, it was only in 2023 that many of the world's leading AI researchers and advocates, including Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak, signed an open letter alongside thousands of others highlighting the need for a moratorium on AI expansion. At the time, they warned against the existential threats of an "out-of-control' global AI arms race. Since then, the AI genie has well and truly broken out of its ethical bottle, and who knows if there's any way to put it back. ChatGPT now reports more than 400 million active weekly users worldwide, with nearly half accessing AI tools directly from their smartphones. Calls for a moratorium only two years ago have now been drowned out by projections of insatiable future growth, even if it comes at the price of half our jobs. As the climate crisis, air pollution, and global droughts escalate, geoengineering technologies are unlikely to emerge as a sudden, centralised wave like AI. Instead, they are likely to roll out in a quietly unregulated patchwork of crises, one country at a time. Even though I may have been naive to the reality, geoengineering has been happening in a fragmented, ad-hoc manner for decades. It's incredibly scary, but what's perhaps scarier is that countries are already rolling out their own experiments around the world without real international coordination or clear regulations. Given the long and diverse history of cloud seeding, the UK government's push to expand research in this area with the promise of built-in oversight, safety protocols and reversibility, feels somewhat measured. The Labour government has confirmed that it's not in favour of rolling out geoengineering at this stage; instead, it hopes that these experiments will lay the groundwork for shaping global regulations around these emerging technologies by 2030. Until then, it's safe to say geoengineering will remain in the spotlight. The urgency to reduce fossil fuel emission could not be greater, but as the climate crisis leads to more unpredictable weather events around the world, the temptation for a quick techno-fix will only grow greater, regardless of whether it addresses the cause of this climate crisis we're now in. I just hope that over the next few years we approach this existential risk with more foresight and restraint than we ever managed with AI.
E&E News
09-05-2025
- Science
- E&E News
UK funds geoengineering experiments as global controversy grows
As temperatures fall and sunlight wanes this winter, scientists will gather in the Canadian Arctic with drills and pumps in tow. Their mission: to refreeze the region's melting sea ice. Known as Re-Thickening Arctic Sea Ice, or RASi, the project aims to pump seawater from the ocean and spray it over the top of existing ice floes, where the cold air will freeze it solid. Researchers hope that the process will create a thicker layer of sea ice, helping undo some of the damage caused by rising global temperatures. For now, it's just an experiment — and a relatively small one at that. Over the next three winter seasons, the researchers plan to refreeze areas as large as 1 square kilometer, or 0.38 square miles. Along the way, they'll assess how the project affects the local ecology and the movement of the sea ice — and how long it takes to melt again in the summer. Advertisement The project is one of a handful of geoengineering experiments funded by the British government. UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) announced on Wednesday that it would invest a total of about $60 million in climate-cooling research, spread among 21 projects.
Daily Mail
09-05-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
What we know about the secretive government agency planning to dim the sun - as experts warn of 'unwanted' consequences
Most people probably haven't heard of Aria – the secretive UK government agency funding efforts to dim the sun. Aria, or the 'Advanced Research and Invention Agency', has allocated £57 million for so-called 'geoengineering' projects that aim to slow global warming. One of these projects is Marine Cloud Brightening, which involves ships spraying saltwater into the sky to enhance the reflectivity of low-lying clouds. The salt will force water droplets in the clouds to come together or 'coalesce', which will make them more reflective and stop so much sunlight reaching Earth. Ilan Gur, chief executive of Aria, said: 'In climate change, we're essentially in a race against time in terms of the consequential, potentially devastating changes to the planet.' But some experts have warned that such outdoor experiments – which are due to begin in the next five years – could have 'unwanted side-effects'. So, you may be wondering – who, exactly, are Aria and where does their money come from? Read on to find out more about the public-funded agency, which is spending£4.1 million a year on wages for its staff alone. Aria, a research funding agency of the UK government, aims to 'unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone'. 'We empower scientists and engineers to pursue research that is too speculative, too hard, or too interdisciplinary to pursue elsewhere,' it says on its website. The research agency was originally the brainchild of Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's former chief aide, and was set up in 2021 by ex-Tory business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. The body, based in London, has been given a staggering £800 million budget – of taxpayers' cash – to go towards 'high-risk, high-reward' scientific research. As Aria states on its website, other research projects it is supporting include programmable plants that remove move CO2 and smarter robot bodies that 'ease the labour challenges of tomorrow'. Ilan Gur, the chief executive, is being paid around £450,000 annually, The Telegraph reports – three times more than the Prime Minister. Meanwhile Antonia Jenkinson, the chief finance officer, takes home around £215,000 and Pippy James, the chief product officer, around £175,000. In total, Aria is blowing £4.1 million a year on wages despite having just 37 staff, with the top four staff at the company pocketing nearly £1 million of taxpayers' cash each year between them. What is Aria? Aria, a research funding agency of the UK government, was announced in February 2021 and formally established January 2023. Funded by British taxpayers, it aims to 'unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone'. 'We empower scientists and engineers to pursue research that is too speculative, too hard, or too interdisciplinary to pursue elsewhere,' it says on its website. When it was first set up Mr Cummings laid out his vision for the research agency, telling the House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee that Aria must have 'extreme freedom' from the 'horrific bureaucracy' of Whitehall. One committee member, Katherine Fletcher MP, said that this proposed lack of oversight made Aria vulnerable to capture by the 'tinfoil hat brigade' offering unusual and potentially transformative research, which was never likely to succeed. Questions have also been raised about their willingness to share information. A report, published in March this year by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), showed that Aria had received a Freedom of Information (FOI) request seeking information about its 'Scoping Our Planet' project. The request had come from online newsletter 'Democracy for Sale', which had asked for information regarding who had been funded under the project, which seeks to support schemes to 'fill the gaps in Earth system measurement to respond confidently to the climate crisis'. Aria responded by stating that it did not consider the requested information to be 'environmental information'. Following a complaint to the ICO, the initial request was upheld and the information was provided. The ICO's report reads: 'The Commissioner agrees that there is public interest in Aria being transparent about the projects which it is funding.' What is geoengineering? Geoengineering is the large-scale manipulation of environmental processes that affect Earth's climate, in an attempt to halt global warming. Globally, projects include injecting chemical aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and absorbing CO2 dissolved in seawater. But critics have concerns that expensive geoengineering endeavors will backfire, causing destructive weather patterns and making climate change worse. In an online piece for Prospect Magazine, English lawyer David Allen Green said the secrecy of Aria shows 'an elite wanting public money but not public accountability'. He warned there is a notion within government 'that publicly funded projects should be closed from public scrutiny, that those with public power know best and that such information should remain private to those with power'. On its website, ARIA says: 'As a publicly funded agency, our responsibility to the taxpayer is our first priority. We therefore require visibility of the actual costs we are funding.' Marine Cloud Brightening is one of 21 so-called 'geoengineering' projects receiving £57 million from Aria, of which five will involve outdoor trials. Another University of Cambridge-led project receiving part of the funding is described as an early exploration for the potential of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI). It would involve a study on how milligram quantities of mineral dusts age in the stratosphere while contained in an air balloon. During this controlled experiment, none of these materials will be released into the atmosphere, and all the materials will be returned to the ground for recovery and analysis by scientists, Aria said. However, some scientists are concerned that expensive endeavors could fail or even backfire, causing destructive weather patterns and making climate change worse. According to official data, the UK only receives an average of 1,400 hours of sunshine per year anyway – averaging only 3.8 hours per day. Mike Hulme, a professor of human geography at the University of Cambridge, warned that Aria is leading the world down a 'slippery slope'. £57 million is a huge amount of taxpayers' money to be spent on this assortment of speculative technologies intended to manipulate the Earth's climate,' he told the Telegraph. 'Just because they 'work' in a model, or at a micro-scale in the lab or the sky, does not mean they will cool the climate safely, without unwanted side-effects, in the real world. 'There is therefore no way that this research can demonstrate that the technologies are safe, successful or reversible. 'The UK Government is leading the world down what academic analysts call "the slippery slope" towards eventual dangerous large-scale deployment of solar geoengineering technologies.' Meanwhile, Dr Naomi Vaughan, professor of climate change at the University of East Anglia UEA, said sunlight reflecting methods could create a 'new risk' to society. 'Scientists are cautious about solar radiation management research because of how it could be used or misused in the future,' she said. Scientists have proposed all sorts of solutions to fight climate change, including a number of controversial geoengineering strategies. Among the many include: Afforestation: This technique would irrigate deserts, such as those in Australia and North Africa, to plant millions of trees that could absorb carbon dioxide. Drawback: This vegetation would also draw in sunlight that the deserts currently reflect back into space, and so contribute to global warming. Artificial ocean upwelling: Engineers would use long pipes to pump cold, nutrient-rich water upward to cool ocean-surface waters. Drawback: If this process ever stopped it could cause oceans to rebalance their heat levels and rapidly change the climate. Ocean alkalinisation: This involves heaping lime into the ocean to chemically increase the absorption of carbon dioxide. Drawback: Study suggests it will have of little use in reducing global temperatures. Ocean iron fertilisation: The method involves dumping iron into the oceans to improve the growth of photosynthetic organisms that can absorb carbon dioxide. Drawback: Study suggests it will have of little use in reducing global temperatures.
