"Plan B" is a study
of potential methods
to cool the climate
by spraying chemicals
into the atmosphere
to block some sunlight.
What could
possibly
go wrong ?
( a lot ! )
Environmental groups
are even more furious
than usual.
They say any
climate "Plan B"
will distract from
what they claim
is the only
permanent solution
to climate change --
Large reductions
greenhouse-gas
emissions.
The National
Oceanic and
Atmospheric
Administration
received $4 million
of Plan B funding
from Congress.
And their permission
to study two controversial
geo-engineering methods
that might cool the Earth.
According to
Science Magazine,
David Fahey,
director of the
Chemical Sciences
Division of NOAA’s
Earth System
Research
Laboratory,
told his staff
that climate
“geo-engineering”
had been funded.
Fahey called this
“Plan B” for
climate change.
Fahey emphasized
this is only a study
-- not an approval
to actually begin
geo-engineering.
He also recommended
changing the name from
geo-engineering to
“climate intervention,”
which he described as a
“more neutral word.”
Over the past few years,
the theory of spraying
particles into the sky
to cool the Earth
has become much
more mainstream.
2016
Then-CIA director
John Brennan,
addressed the Council
on Foreign Relations
in 2016, talking
about instability and
transnational threats
to global security.
He mentioned
a process of
spraying chemical
particulates in the
atmosphere
to cool the planet.
Stratospheric aerosol injection,
or SAI, was a proposal to seed
the stratosphere with particles
that help reflect the sun’s heat.
The National
Research Council
estimated that
a full SAI program
would cost about
$10 billion yearly.
2019
CNBC put out
a video titled
"How Bill Gates-Funded
Solar Geo-engineering
Could Help End
Climate Change".
The subject
moved from almost
a "conspiracy theory",
into the mainstream,
immediately after
Bill Gates endorsed it,
and offered to fund it.
In July 2019,
Harvard scientists
announced that they
will attempt to replicate
the climate-cooling effect
of volcanic eruptions
with a world-first solar
geo-engineering
experiment.
Known as the
Stratospheric
Controlled Perturbation
Experiment (SCoPEx),
the idea was to spray
calcium carbonate
particles high above
the Earth to mimic
the effects of
volcanic ash
blocking some sun
to produce cooling.
The Harvard study
appears to be similar
to NOAA’s “Plan B.”
In November 2019,
a study published
in Environmental
Research Letters,
talked about
geo-engineering
with
planes spraying
particulates into
the atmosphere
to curb global
warming.
THE 2020 NOAA
"Plan-B" STUDIES:
(1) NOAA
One idea is to inject
sulfur dioxide,
or a similar aerosol,
into the stratosphere
to shade the Earth
from some sunlight.
It is patterned after
volcanic eruptions,
which cool the Earth
by emitting huge clouds
of sulfur dioxide.
(2) NOAA
The second idea
is an aerosol of
sea salt particles
to increase
low-lying clouds
over the ocean,
acting as shade.
WILL THIS WORK ?
Mount Pinatubo
erupted in the
Philippines in 1991.
It was the
second largest
volcano eruption
of the 20th century.
It injected
20 million tons
of sulfur dioxide
aerosols into the
stratosphere.
Scientists
from the USGS
estimated the
20 million tons
lowered the
temperature
of the planet
by only 1°F
( 0.5°C ).
And that
minor cooling
only lasted a year,
because particles
eventually fell
back to Earth.
Based on actual
experience with
past volcanoes,
and the lack
of any real
climate crisis
that needs
a solution,
the "Plan B"
proposals are
all ridiculous.
( the predicted
climate crisis
is an imaginary
computer game
prediction,
not reality )