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Gates funds cloud whitening experiments:
Global Ban Demanded

ETC Group |
handsoffmotherearth.org

As huge cloud-whitening experiment goes
public, global coalition urges an immediate halt to
geoengineering

Amidst revelations in this weekend’s
London Times newspaper[1] that a team of scientists and
engineers funded by billionaire Bill Gates are planning to
carry out a 10,000 square kilometer field trial of
controversial “cloud-whitening” technology, over one hundred
civil society groups are urging governments meeting on
biological diversity in Nairobi to stop risky geoengineering
experiments now. Geoengineering refers to large-scale
technological schemes to intentionally alter the planet’s
systems as a quick fix for climate change.

The
San-Francisco based “Silver Lining Project” directed by
entrepreneur Kelly Wanser has so far received $ 300,000
dollars from Bill Gates to develop technologies that will
increase the whiteness of marine clouds. Theoretically,
executed on a massive scale, whiter clouds could increase the
earth’s albedo, reflecting more sunlight back to space and
thereby reduce global warming (without changing the
composition of greenhouse gases which cause warming). The
Silver Lining Project has decided to press ahead with plans to
alter cloud-cover over an undisclosed 10,000 square kilometre
patch of ocean (as large as the BP oil slick was a few days
ago). If not stopped, the Gates ‘cloud-bleaching’ experiment
would be the largest known geoengineering field trial to date.
Its effects could include changes in rainfall and other
altered weather patterns. One site frequently spoken of by
scientists engaged in this research is the Pacific coast of
North and South America (specifically California, Ecuador,
Peru and Chile).

Most worrisome, the Times revealed:
“The British and American scientists involved do not intend to
wait for international rules on technology that deliberately
alters the climate.” Such rules could be set in motion this
week as scientists and diplomats from 193 nations meet under
the auspices of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s
scientific body. The meeting in Nairobi of SBSTTA 14
(Subsidiary Body of Scientific, Technical and Technological
Advice, running from May 10-21 2010) is the first time a UN
Body has addres sed geoengineering as a whole since the
signing of the ENMOD Treaty in Geneva in 1976 that banned
environmental modification for “hostile uses”.[2].

A
new global coalition will be urging governments in Nairobi to
adopt a moratorium on all geoengineering experiments, just as
the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a moratorium
on ocean fertilization in 2008. Over one hundred organizations
and individuals, including leading names in the environmental
and global justice movement have joined H.O.M.E. campaign:
Hands off Mother Earth--Our Home is not a Laboratory
(www.handsoffmotherearth.org).

“Our Home Planet Earth
should not be treated as a laboratory for risky geoengineering
experiments,” says Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group in Mexico from
the Nairobi SBSTTA meeting. “Human-caused climate change
already threatens our lands, seas, food supply and rights. We
do not want to embark on another dangerous experiment with our
planet. If they think that the people and governments of
Ecuador, Peru or Chile – or anywhere else they might try --
will stand idly by as they mess with our oceans, clouds and
weather, they are in for a surpise. Delegates here are shocked
by these plans.”

“We knew Microsoft was developing
cloud applications for computers but we didn’t expect this,”
explained Jim Thomas of ETC Group, one of the founding
organizations of the HOME campaign “Bill Gates and his
cloud-wrenching cronies have no right to unilaterally change
our seas and skies in this way. A global moratorium on
geoengineering experiments just became a whole lot more urgent
and the meeting in Nairobi is a fine place to ensure that it
gets put into place rapidly.”

-30-

Additional
background:

What: Geoengineering refers to large-scale
technological proposals to fix climate change by deliberately
altering the climate, weather, atmosphere and oceans. Examples
of geoengineering schemes include dumping nutrients into the
sea to grow algal blooms (called Ocean Fertilization), turning
extensive monoculture plantations into charcoal to bury in the
soil (called biochar) and deliberately polluting the upper
atmosphere with sulphur or aluminium particles to reflect
sunlight (called stratospheric aerosols) as well as
cloud-whitening. All of these experiments have large potential
impacts on environment, biodiversity and the livelihoods of
people especially in the Global South. Geoengineering
advocates argue that there is no time for a global political
agreement to address the real causes of climate change, so
brave new scientists and wealthy entrepreneurs should save the
world for all of us instead, with their own
technofixes.

There are now several geoengineering
experiments getting underway without any global oversight
framework in place and larger experiments are planned.
Geoengineers, including those behind the Gates cloud-wrenching
test have recently proposed “voluntary guidelines” rather than
full independent multilateral oversight of the field. The
proposal currently before SBSTTA 14 is for governments to look
into the biodiversity implications of geoengineering (as well
as to examine the ongoing work on ocean fertilization which
began in 2008). Civil society groups are insisting experiments
be stopped while governments examine the implications of such
research.

Who: A new global campaign and coalition to
stop Geoengineering experiments was launched last month at an
international climate change meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
This Hands Off Mother Earth (H.O.M.E.) Campaign is calling on
governments through the UN to put a halt to unilateral
open-air geoengineering experiments – arguing they are too
risky and unjust. Supporters of the HOME campaign against
geoengineering include high profile environmentalists such as
Bill McKibben, David Suzuki, Vandana Shiva and Naomi Klein.
Organizations supporting the HOME campaign include ETC Group,
Friends of the Earth International, Third World Network, Ind
igenous Environmental Network, la Via Campenina, Asian
Indigenous Peoples Pact, Biofuelwatch and many
others.

Show of Hands: Additionally members of the
public have been uploading their pictures with their hands
held up with messages against geoengineering to a growing
photo petition at http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org. A giant
poster displaying the protest is on display at SBSTTA 14 in
Nairobi and ETC Group has three people at the meeting, working
with campaign partners to inform delegates of the protest and
the reasons behind it.

For more information about Hands
Off Mother Earth Campaign
see

http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org

In
Nairobi:

*Neth Dano, [email-masked] cell & SMS +
63 917 532 9369
Nairobi cell: +254 712 605
622

Silvia Ribeiro, [email-masked] cell & SMS
+52 1 55 2653 3330
Nairobi cell: +254 712 601
660

*Molly Kane, [email-masked] cell & SMS: +
1-613-797 6421

In Canada:

Diana Bronson -
[email-masked]; cell: 514 629 9236

Jim Thomas -
[email-masked] cell: 514 516 5759

Pat Mooney –
[email-masked] cell: 613 240 0045

[1] See Ben
Webster, Bill Gates Pays for artificial clouds to beat
greenhouse gases, 8 May 2010, Times Online at
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article7120011.ece

[2]
Convention on the Prohibition of Military or any other Hostile
Use of Environmental Modification Techniques. See
http://www.fas.org/nuke/control/enmod/text/environ2.htm

Published on May 10 2010
22:02:58386 Reads ·

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