Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumGeoengineering Test Quietly Launches Salt Crystals into Atmosphere - Scientific American
Scientific American | CORBIN HIAR & E&E NEWS | APRIL 4, 2024
CLIMATEWIRE | The nation's first outdoor test to limit global warming by increasing cloud cover launched Tuesday from the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay.
The experiment, which organizers didn't widely announce to avoid public backlash, marks the acceleration of a contentious field of research known as solar radiation modification. The concept involves shooting substances such as aerosols into the sky to reflect sunlight away from the Earth.
The move led by researchers at the University of Washington has renewed questions about how to effectively and ethically study promising climate technologies that could also harm communities and ecosystems in unexpected ways. The experiment is spraying microscopic salt particles into the air, and the secrecy surrounding its timing caught even some experts off guard.
"Since this experiment was kept under wraps until the test started, we are eager to see how public engagement is being planned and who will be involved," said Shuchi Talati, the executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, a nonprofit that seeks to include developing countries in decisions about solar modification, also known as geoengineering.
"While it complies with all current regulatory requirements, there is a clear need to reexamine what a strong regulatory framework must look like in a world where [solar radiation modification] experimentation is happening," she added...more
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/geoengineering-test-quietly-launches-salt-crystals-into-atmosphere/
Link to tweet
What else is "under wraps" to "avoid public backlash" ??
Irish_Dem
(57,677 posts)Then we keep polluting the planet more and more and keep increasing the cloud cover?
Has anyone thought this through?
Easterncedar
(3,533 posts)Im sure they know what theyre doing.
Cane toads, anyone?
magicarpet
(16,532 posts)... the sky and land on earth. Then the salt accumulates in the soil. Will this salt now in the soil help to increase crop yields or will the salt now in the soil prove detrimental for plant growth ?
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As a final insult before they left, it is said that the Roman soldiers sprinkled salt upon the ground to ensure that nothing could ever grow there again. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Spain and Portugal punished traitors within their empires by executing them and then pouring salt on their land.
https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/ancient-history/salting-carthage/