Which used to be a bad plot point Highlander II again The Simpsons as if one day it could happen. Billionaires in Silicon Valley plan to block the sun. Why? We are running out of time to stop global warming and the bigger problem may require more radical solutions.
It’s a recipe for unintended consequences, but it’s popular in the “move fast and break things” world of Silicon Valley. A feature on Bloomberg dives deep into the technology, who’s funding it, and what the consequences could be.
The planet is getting hotter and the catastrophic consequences of that warming are no longer a theory, they are real. Even worse, climate experts have warned that we may have passed the point of no return. Any action by world governments to address this problem will have to be swift and drastic. That probably won’t happen.
Faced with that kind of problem, rich people think of doing things themselves—and fast. “I wish the world would study solar geoengineering more,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said to X. “Obviously I’m skeptical about it, but it’s cheap enough that I think some country will do it if/when the weather gets bad enough as a temporary location. It would be good to learn more before then.”
Bill Gates, former Meta CTO Mike Schroepfer, Facebook founder Dustin Moskovitz, VC executives Matt Cohler and Chris Sacca, and Bay Area billionaire Rachel Pritzker are all investing in companies seeking to block the sun.
How exactly would this work? As Altman points out in his post, it’s cheap and easy. A startup called Make Sunset is already out there doing it. “Some might call it solar engineering—we call it an opportunity to reverse global warming,” their website says.
Make Sunsets’ solution is solar radiation management (SRM), which involves reflecting sunlight to cool the planet. There are several ways to do this, but one of the simplest is called stratospheric aerosol injection. It involves flying a plane around the planet that dumps sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. In theory, SO2 will cover the stratosphere, reflect sunlight away from the planet, and gradually cool the Earth.
According to its website, this solution simulates the effects of a volcanic eruption. This site says: “The gas released by the eruption of the volcano has been cooling the Earth for millions of years, like Mount Pinatubo in 1991. We are simply imitating Mother Nature.
What are the disadvantages of this? There’s a lot. According to the company’s FAQ, the result is uncertain, it may destroy the ozone layer, if it is stopped the Earth may warm, it may cause the impression that the world has “fixed” climate change, and it is “possible.” leading to political tensions and disagreements about its deployment, regulation, and potential side effects.”
Right now they are doing it with balloons. Interested individuals and companies can purchase “cooling credits” from Make Sunsets for $10 a pop or for a subscription fee of $30 per month for 30. “One Cooling Credit removes one ton of warming CO2 for an entire year. The average American produces 16 tons of CO2 per year,” says Make Sunsets on its website. “By purchasing a Cooling Credit, your funds will be used to release at least 1 gram of our ‘clouds’ into the stratosphere on your behalf, which offsets the warming of 1 ton of carbon dioxide for one year.”
According to Bloomberg, some cooling startups and NGOs see Make Sunsets as a joke. “You need an effective regulatory function and you need a lot of science. Right now, we don’t have any of those things,” Kelly Wanser, founder of SilverLining—a climate change nonprofit—told Bloomberg.
As the planet heats up, the plots will become more ridiculous. It’s hard to blame the world’s billionaires for wanting to spend part of their vast wealth to protect their investments. The governments of the world have made it clear that they are not yet up to the challenge. As Altman says, it’s likely that someone with a lot of money will be persuaded to do something much bigger and weirder after a major climate event in the near future. Andrew Lockley, a UK-based independent geoengineering researcher told Bloomberg: “It only takes one person to start up and say, ‘I’ve got 100 million quid, I’ve got a business jet, let’s go.’
There is no shortage of startups and NGOs out there willing to take their money for a solid and proven solution.
In Highlander IIthe main character Connor MacLeod is filled with the sum total of all human experience. He is using that energy to solve a pressing problem, the Earth’s rapidly depleting ozone layer. He does this by building a huge shield that covers the entire planet. It saves us but condemns the world to darkness, heat, and humidity. It hurts. In the end, he destroys the shield and restores the sky to the earth.
Highlander II she is breastfeeding. It’s a bad movie. And it’s sad that years of dragging our feet on climate change have created conditions where some of its most ridiculous aspects may become reality.
