Blocking the sun’s rays to limit global warming requires less paperwork than your income taxes. Just submit a one-page form to the U.S. government 10 days before you do it. That’s the only federal oversight for solar geoengineering, a corner of science long considered too dangerous to try — or even study. But experts argue the meager 1970s-era reporting requirement needs a major overhaul to reflect the growing interest in fiddling with the weather, writes Robin Bravender. Academics and researchers are petitioning the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to beef up its rules as interest in solar radiation modification grows. Scientists and businesses are increasingly eyeing engineered ways to cool the Earth as countries fail to slash enough carbon to meaningfully slow global warming. And small-scale operations are already underway — with little oversight and even less transparency. “There’s no governance on the international level, national governance, there’s no state governance, there’s nothing,” said David Bookbinder, a longtime climate attorney who previously served as the Sierra Club’s chief climate counsel. “I am more concerned about this than anything else.” The risks are huge, from changing weather patterns to damaging the ozone. Scientists also worry about “termination shock,” a rapid and catastrophic rise in temperatures that can happen if a large-scale geoengineering project stops prematurely. Large-scale geoengineering has long been mired in controversy and struggled to take off amid arguments the field should be considered a science of last resort that could do more harm than good. Harvard University announced last week that it ended a solar radiation modification research project after years of setbacks and opposition from critics. And earlier this month, a proposal to expand research on solar geoengineering was withdrawn from consideration at the United Nations Environment Assembly after nations failed to agree on an approach to the knotty issue. But small-scale geoengineering experiments are already happening. A company called Make Sunsets caused a stir last year after launching weather balloons in Mexico that deposited sunlight-reflecting sulfate particles into the upper atmosphere. The company — just one in a small but growing sector — ceased operations in the country after the Mexican government said it had not been notified and announced it would ban solar geoengineering. Make Sunsets has since moved its operations to Nevada. CEO Luke Iseman submitted the required paperwork to NOAA only after it began launches and the agency communicated the rule to him, Robin writes. The company’s operations may be small, but its ambitions are not. Under project purpose, Iseman wrote: “Reduce average global temperature.” Location? “All of Earth.”
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