What was once a goofy plot point fromHighlander IIandThe Simpsonsmay one day come to pass.
Billionaire weirdos in Silicon Valley are plotting to block out the sun.
Afeature in Bloomberggoes deep into the technology, who is funding it, and what the consequences might be.
Brandenburg, Jacobsdorf: Wind turbines from the “Odervorland” wind farm at sunset.© Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images
Worse, climate experts have warned that we may be wellpast the point of no return.
Any action by the worlds governments to fix this problem would need to be immediate and dramatic.
Thats probably not going to happen.
Faced with that kind of dilemma, rich people are thinking about taking matters into their own handsand soon.
I wish the world were studying solar geoengineering more, OpenAI CEO Sam Altmansaid in a post on X.
Would be great to learn more before then.
How, exactly, would this work?
As Altman pointed out in his post, its cheap and easy.
A startup called Make Sunsets is already out there doing it.
Some may call it solar engineeringwe call it an opportunity to reverse global warming,its website says.
Make Sunsets solution is solar radiation management (SRM), which involves reflecting sunlight to cool the planet.
It involves flying a jet around the planet that dumps sulfur dioxide into the air.
According to its website, this solution mimics the effects of a volcanic eruption.
Emissions from volcanic eruptions have been cooling the Earth for millions of years, like Mt.
We are simply mimicking Mother Nature, the site says.
What are the downsides to this?
Right now theyre doing it with balloons.
One Cooling Credit offsets one ton of CO2 warming for a year.
The average American generates 16 tons of CO2 per year, Make Sunsets says on its website.
According to Bloomberg, other cooling startups and NGOs see Make Sunsets as a bit ridiculous.
You need a regulatory function that works and you need lots of science.
As the planet heats up, the plots will only get more ridiculous.
The governments of the world have made it clear that they arent up to the challenge.
InHighlander II, protagonist Connor MacLeod is filled with the sum of all human knowledge.
He uses that power to solve a pressing problem, the Earths rapidly diminishing ozone layer.
He does this by building a giant shield encasing the entire planet.
It saves us but dooms the world to darkness, heat, and humidity.
In the end, he destroys the shield and gives the world back the sky.
Its a bad movie.
Schroepfer funds the non-profit Outlier Projects.
We regret the error.
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