- Geoengineering is defined as "planetary-scale environmental
engineering of our atmosphere, our weather, the oceans, and the Earth itself"
[1]. The methods, or schemes, that may be used now without public oversight
or debate, prior public notification, U.S. Congress or State oversight,
are staggering in number and scope.
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- SOLAR RADIATION MANAGEMENT involves intentionally introduced
atmospheric schemes that would add particles, chemicals, or gases to our
upper atmosphere to reduce the amount of direct sunlight reaching the Earth.
These schemes also include cloud whitening experiments (using salt particles),
and putting more water vapor (a greenhouse gas), into the atmosphere to
create more artificial cloud cover [1].
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- One of the current experiments that has been ongoing
since the late 1980s, is the use of large jets to introduce more water
vapor into our atmosphere on an ever-increasing scale [3]. One of the
byproducts of jet engine combustion is water vapor. And this program is
backfiring because studies show that aviation (both military and commercial),
is exacerbating the melting of glaciers in both Alaska and the Arctic and
causing other pollution problems.
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- NASA research studies show that increasingly persistent
jet contrails may turn into "man-made clouds" (or white haze),
and are "trapping warmth in the atmosphere and exacerbating global
warmingAny change in global cloud cover may contribute to long-term changes
in the Earth's climate" No current U.S. legislation addresses water
vapor and aviation impacts on the global atmosphere. In addition, climate
scientists are working to add more pollutants to the atmosphere in order
to reduce the amount of direct sunlight reaching the Earth.
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- Many private corporations, universities, government agencies,
private individuals, states, counties, and cities, may participate in deploying
a vast array of geoengineering experiments, including but not limited to,
weather modification programs. Currently no government agency, or the
U.S. Congress at this time, will have any idea what the cumulative or synergistic
effects may be when these experiments are deployed. In addition,
no one, not even the U.S. Congress or the public, will have any oversight
of these programs or how they will be implemented. Action needs to be taken
today to prevent these questionable experiments and to engage in public
debates about the drawbacks which are substantial (Examples: Increased
acid rain, tree declines, increasing asthma, air, soil, and water pollution).
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- Now many climate and geoengineering scientists, private
corporations, and individuals, who held many public geoengineering promotional
meetings in 2010, and in 2011, are preparing to implement and fund various
geoengineering schemes, with either public or private funding, and without
any oversight, public notification or consent [3,5+8]. Some of these schemes
are already being tested. What are the consequences of deploying these
geoengineering experiments? Some of the most obvious problems are discussed
below.
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- THE SOLAR POWER CONNECTION: We are now moving toward
using solar panels to produce electricity. Experimental SRM schemes will
reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth lowering solar panel energy
output. And the particles and chemicals used will also coat the solar
panels making them less efficient.
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- Many proposed chemicals or particles used in these geoengineering
schemes (i.e., U.S. Navy / NASA C.A.R.E. experiment which deployed into
the atmosphere an aluminum oxide dust cloud September 19, 2009), are likely
to be toxic to humans, marine mammals, oceans, fish, wildlife, food pollinators,
and birds. Many of these toxic chemicals, like sulfur, have the potential
to contaminate drinking water, soil, cause acid rain or air pollution,
and may impair human health [1].
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- Vitamin D: SRM schemes will reduce the amount of sunlight
reaching the Earth. We are already experiencing human health problems,
like rickets in children, from jets leaving persistent jet contrails that
turn into man-made clouds exacerbating global dimming. Many illnesses
can be traced back to Vitamin D deficiencies.
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- SRM may limit Honey Bee food pollination because the
bee navigates and communicates though the use of ultraviolet light. And
we have no idea what the cumulative impacts of toxic chemicals, particles,
and reduced sunlight will have on all of our pollinators, endangering food
production in the United States.
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- PHOTOSYNTHESIS is required for the majority of life on
Earth to exist, along with healthy trees, and food crop production. When
cloud cover and reduced sunlight is not present crop production drops.
When direct sunlight and normal rainfall is present crop production increases.
What happens when geoengineers deliberately reduce the amount of direct
sunlight reaching the Earth? What are the consequences of multiple uncontrolled
experiments on our air, water, soils, and on the Earth itself?
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- THE LIABILITY ISSUE: The geoengineers want to conduct
their experiments behind closed doors without public participation or rules.
Why? The answer is that they will be financially liable if their experiments
impair human health, agriculture, poison our water, soils, air or create
other damaging events. Thus, they require secrets tests and experiments
with no public debate, notification, oversight or knowledge. Climate scientists
that propose geoengineering really don't want a public debate on this issue
because they know that their schemes would be unacceptable and rejected
by the public [8].
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- The U.S. House of Representatives has held Geoengineering
Hearings beginning on November 5, 2009, where the public, the Environmental
Protection Agency, at either Federal or State levels, state agencies, agriculture
representation or ocean scientists were not present. Two U.S. House
Science & Technology hearings were held in 2010, with the final U.S.
House report released in October 2010.
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- The U.S. House Science & Technology Committee is
working with the UK Parliament [6], who also held hearings on this topic
over the last two years, to implement these experiments and also to work
out Global Geoengineering Governance plans for the entire world. Public
participation and scientists from other fields (like agriculture or oceans),
were restricted from providing any testimony. Those scientists who did
testify are the ones working on these projects and who may financially
benefit from implementing these schemes and are actively promoting them.
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- On March 22-26, 2010, the Climate Respond Fund sponsored
the Asilomar International Conference. This Conference also addressed
"develop guidelines for "research and testing of proposed climate
intervention and geoengineering technologies"[5]. Funding for these
programs (and the spending of funds granted by the Bill Gates Foundation,
and others to implement hurricane and other geoengineering experiments),
may also have been on the agenda [4]. (Some of the Patents can be found
at the U.S. Patent Office.) One idea is to fund geoengineering schemes
through a carbon tax.
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- In a presentation (March 22-26, 2010), on how to enlist
public support, for geoengineering and other SRM plans there was another
key statement from the AAAS program write-up: "Studies show,
however, that people make judgments based primarily on their values, belief
systems, world views, and emotions [5]. Facts play a much more minor
role. This gap cannot be bridged by loading the public with facts,
or trying to make the public more science literate"
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- Why not try the truth for a change when presenting these
ideas to the public? And why imply that we don't care about the truth
or that it is okay to deceive us repeatedly for economic benefits or technological
experiments without considering the human and environmental consequences?
Right now global warming and climate change scare tactics are being used
as the drivers to stampede the public into accepting these experiments
without a full public consideration of the consequences.
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- In a Press Release Dated December of 2002 titled: "GEOENGINEERING
TOO RISKY" A Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Press release warns, "There
are many reasons why geoengineering is not a preferred option for climate
stabilization..." These prescriptions include risks of global
"system failure" and the "unpredictable responses"
of Earth's climate system to large-scale human intervention"
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- The climate scientists and geoengineers all have one
repeated mantra: "Geoengineering is not a solution to climate
change and global warming" They are instead enlisting support to
spend enormous sums to buy time for someone to do something later. Just
what research, project funding, and development are they now engaging in
to fix our current pollution problems now? Nothing! They are not promoting
research into benefits that will be long-lasting or make a difference in
the future. The "temporary fix" theory with "unknown consequences"
seems to be their only contribution to the disaster they predict. Should
the public be willing to accept this temporary fix? The answer is "no"!
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- Scientists and researchers who will invent ways to use
waste energy from currently operating energy plants to produce clean, green
power, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions is where funding should be directednot
to those programs and experiments that will not reduce our impact on Earth
from various types of pollution sources.
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- Our local, county, state and federal representatives
should take immediate action to stop these geoengineering scheme deployments
until scientists from every field, agriculture interests, and the public
have had time to thoroughly investigate these schemes and their effects
on the Earth's environment.
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- No one has the right to use the Earth, or Earth's atmosphere,
as a giant experimental physics laboratory due to the unknown consequences
of such actions. It is up to all of us to educate our elected officials
at every level about these programs (both current and proposed), prior
to implementation or to entirely reject these experimental programs.
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- We encourage everyone to join our May Geoengineering
Awareness Month events and educate others and our elected officials about
the impacts of Geoengineering Schemes [2]. It is now up to all of us to
provide the education and facts that are needed for sound decisions to
be made at every level of government by our elected officials. Without
this knowledge special interests and their lobbyists will take control
of our health, the Earth's functions, and could destroy the Earth's natural
resources which provide food, water, and life for all of us.
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- Local, State and U.S. Congressional Hearings should be
immediately held in order to completely investigate the consequences of
proposed and ongoing geoengineering experiments by any individual, state,
county, private corporation, the U.S. military, university or U.S. government
agencies on agriculture, crop production, air and water pollution, acid
rain, human health, and our oceans. And aviation geoengineering programs
should not escape their notice. There is a lot at stake and all of
us should have our voices heard in this debate.
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- For more information...
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- Contact Rosalind Peterson </mc/compose?to=info@californiaskywatch.com>info@californiaskywatch.com
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- Websites http://agriculturedefensecoalition.org/
or http://californiaskywatch.com/
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- Archive of Articles http://newswithviews.com/Peterson/rosalindA.htm
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- 1. More information on Geoengineering: http://agriculturedefensecoalition.org/?q=geoengineering
- See articles, government documents, and other
studies and reports at this site.
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- 2. To Learn More about THE MAY GEOENGINEERING
AWARENESS MONTH 2011 visit this website http://www.californiaskywatch.com/
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- Also See Current & Upcoming Events
- http://www.californiaskywatch.com/content/current-and-upcoming-events
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- 3. Note: Professor Gregory Benford of U.C.
Irving stated in his article on Arctic Geoengineering on November 20, 2006,
(3+10): "This idea is only the first step in making climate scienceinto
an active science This is not a new transition in scientific styleWe will
live inside the experimentCosts seem readily attainable perhaps a
few hundreds of millions of dollars for an Arctic experiment. High altitude
trials over the open ocean are little constrained by law or treaty, so
show-stopper politics may be avoided"
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- 4. January 28, 2010 Wired Science: Bill Gates
has sunk at least $4.5 million of his personal wealth into geoengineering
research.
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- http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/bill-gates-paying-for-climate-hacking-resear
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- "While it's a small chunk of Gates' vast personal
fortune, it's a sign that the founder of Microsoft thinks we should at
least be looking into the controversial practice of intentionally altering
the Earth's climate on a global scale. "[Gates] views geoengineering
as a way to buy time, but it's not a solution to the problem" of climate
change, Gates' spokesperson John Pinette told Science Insider. "Bill
views this as an important avenue for research - among many others, including
new forms of clean energy."
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- The money will be directed by two high-level scientists
at the forefront of geoengineering research: climate scientist Ken Caldeira,
of Stanford's Carnegie Department of Global Ecology, and physicist David
Keith of the University of Calgary. They will decide which technologies
should receive the cash in order to alter the stratosphere to reflect solar
energy, filter carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and brighten
ocean clouds..."
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- "In a related development Keith, one of the scientists
directing Gates' money, co-authored a Nature editorial this week calling
for an international fund for "solar-radiation management" in
addition to traditional carbon emissions cuts. "Solar-radiation management
may be the only human response that can fend off rapid and high-consequence
climate change impacts," Keith said in a press release WednesdayThe
organization that manages the funds would also develop the governance structures
to provide transparent risk analysis and manage feedback from the world's
countries" He forgot to add: Without public participation, knowledge
or consent.
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- 5. AAAS 2010 Annual Meeting February
18-22, 2010 The AAAS billed itself as the world's largest scientific society.
GLOBAL GEO-ENGINEERING SCIENTISTS TO MEET IN SAN DIEGO-San Diego Convention
Center:
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- Scientists from around the world will be meeting at the
annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting held
in San Diego, California on February 18th, 2010. Here are the links and
descriptions (AAAS) of those presentations scheduled for February 20, 2010:
Human Dimensions of Geoengineering
- http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2010/webprogram/Session1132.html
- http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2010/webprogram/Session1315.html
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- 6. The Royal Society Geoengineering the Climate
2010 Global Geoengineering Governance
- http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2010/webprogram/Session1863.html
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- 7. A Wobbly Three-Legged Stool: Science, Politics,
and the Public - AAAS Conference Presentation 2010: "The (Obama),
Administration is committed to solving society's grand challenges, with
energy, health, and education policy topping the list. President Obama
wants science to have a key role in a new, more pragmatic approach to governance.
In our constitutional democracy an informed public must be able to judge
the performance of those they elect. This requires a triangle comprising
political institutions, the community of experts, and a responsible public,
all of whom are well informed" Just what does the phrase "a
responsible public" mean and which political institutions?
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- "Studies show, however, that people make judgments
based primarily on their values, belief systems, world views, and emotions.
Facts play a much more minor role. This gap cannot be bridged
by loading the public with facts, or trying to make the public more science
literate" It appears that the "public" has now been deemed
ignorantnot capable of making decisionsand that facts play a minor role
in our decisions. These statements are not only insulting but lead one
to believe that the majority of people are ignorant and incapable of dealing
with the issues facing us today. The arrogance of these statements are
astounding.
- http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2010/webprogram/Session1458.html
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- 8. Professor Gregory Benford on Geoengineering
Reason.com Magazine November 11, 1997
- http://reason.com/archives/1997/11/01/climate-controls
- Gregory Benford is a professor of physics at the University
of California Irvine.
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