“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world had to be the shadow,” said Sylvia Plath. Especially if the shadow cools the boiling spirits of a planet. There is shade and shade, though.
According to Forbes, Bill Gates is funding a Harvard project that aims to dim sunlight to "cool" the Earth.
The research, called “Stratospheric Controlled Disturbance Experiment” (SCOPEx is its acronym in English) is pushed by the creator of Microsoft, but conducted by scientists from Harvard University and has the aim of reflecting sunlight outside the atmosphere of our planet.
How does the Harvard project work?
This solution co-financed by Bill Gates would be achieved spraying tons of non-toxic calcium carbonate (CaCO3) into the atmosphere.
“SCoPEx is a Harvard science experiment to advance understanding of stratospheric aerosols that may be relevant to solar geoengineering,” you can read on the project page.
SCoPEx, solar geoengineering
The Harvard project will begin carrying out tests that according to plans consist of releasing a balloon with scientific equipment, which will not initially spray CaCO3. It will work as a maneuvering test and to explore communications and operating systems.
“We plan to use a high-altitude balloon to lift an instrument package about 20 km into the atmosphere. Once positioned, a very small amount of material will be released (from 100 grams to 2 kilos) to create a disturbed air mass about one kilometer long and one hundred meters in diameter. We will then use the same balloon to measure the resulting changes in the disturbed air mass, including changes in aerosol density, atmospheric chemistry, and light scattering,” they explain at Harvard.
What could go wrong?
According to Forbes, scientific opponents of this Bill Gates-funded Harvard project believe solar geoengineering it could involve inevitable risks and extreme changes in weather patterns. Disastrous changes, which would be no different from current warming trends.
They also explain that environmentalists fear that a "dramatic" change in the mitigation strategy will become an excuse to continue emitting greenhouse gases without changing anything in current consumption patterns.
The similarity of this Harvard project to many of the geoengineering programs described by both more conspiratorial fringes is curious than by other scholars.
The infamous chemtrails, it seems, leave the topic of urban legends and enter the event horizon. Who knows, reading a news story featuring the words “Bill Gates” and “Chemtrails” will make conspiracy theorists or debunkers more bitter.
