Earth Equity News

Bill Gates Pays for 'Artificial' Clouds to Beat Greenhouse Gases. By Ben Webster, London Times, May 8, 2010. "The first trials of controversial sunshielding technology are being planned... Bill Gates... is funding research into machines to suck up ten tonnes of seawater every second and spray it upwards. This would seed vast banks of white clouds to reflect the Sun's rays away from Earth. The British and American scientists involved... do not intend to wait for international rules on technology that deliberately alters the climate. They believe that the weak outcome of December's climate summit in Copenhagen means that emissions will continue to rise unchecked and that the world urgently needs an alternative strategy to protect itself from global warming... However, a study last year calculated that a fleet of 1,900 ships costing £5 billion could arrest the rise in temperature by criss-crossing the oceans and spraying seawater from tall funnels to whiten clouds and increase their reflectivity. Silver Lining, a research body in San Francisco, has received $300,000 from Mr Gates. It will develop machines to convert seawater into microscopic particles capable of being blown up to the cloud level of 1,000 metres. This would whiten clouds by increasing the number of nuclei. The trial would involve ten ships and 10,000sq km (3,800sq miles) of ocean. Armand Neukermanns, who is leading the research, said that whitening clouds was 'the most benign form of engineering' because, while it might alter rainfall, the effects would cease soon after the machines were switched off."