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Karl Burkart

Bill Gates funds cloud factory

The planet-saving billionaire just funded a new geoengineering project which seeks to stop climate change. But some environmentalists are very worried.

Tue, May 11 2010 at 12:14 AM EST
 33

Geoengineering — the science of altering the Earth’s life support systems — is officially a reality. San Francisco-based research institute Silver Lining just received $300,000 of seed funding from Bill Gates to test a “cloud whitening” technology that could prove a cost-effective method for slowing the effects of global warming.
 
Earlier this year at TED, Gates surprised the world by pronouncing that climate change was the single greatest threat to humanity and that he would be joining the effort to find rapidly deployable energy technologies that could get us out of the #1 cause of climate change — coal and oil. But the new venture shows the billionaire genius is looking at the problem from multiple angles.
 
The most promising energy technologies (with the exception of distributed solar) are still a decade or more away. Next-gen nuclear, the most promising of all technologies, is probably 20 years away. And it’s becoming clearer every day that our planet and our species cannot afford 10 more years of uninterrupted warming.
 
In the interim, geoengineering solutions such as cloud creation may help to slow the impacts of ongoing fossil fuel consumption as we transition to safer, cleaner and cooler fuels. Some pretty whacky ideas have been put forth before Congress including rockets loaded with mirrors that could orbit around the Earth reflecting away sunlight and mechanical “trees” that could soak up more CO2 than a regular forest.
 
The cloud-whitening technology seems to be the most readily deployable. Basically a fleet of ships equipped with screens and vacuums pump up millions of gallons of ocean water and using high-powered water canons, introduce the water some 3,000 feet in the air, where clouds are formed. The added moisture content would increase the thickness of the water vapor, making the clouds whiter and thus more reflective.
 
Of course this, as with all other geoengineering solutions, is not without environmental impacts. No one really knows exactly what happens when humans alter the atmosphere in such a way. A global coalition of environmentalists called HOME (Hands Off Mother Earth) is calling for a moratorium on geoengineering experiments until the international laws on geoengineering being discussed this week in a U.N. scientific meeting in Nairobi are clarified. 
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anonymous
RealityBites 10/10/2010 15:22 PM

If the gates fool is involved you can expect it to screw up and destroy the earth.

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anonymous
Guest 06/21/2010 17:31 PM

The US alone produces about 1/4 of all greenhouse gases admitted into the atmosphere. thats only 300 million pple out of 6 billion creating about 25%. So what he needs to be funding is alternative energy solutions...not clouds. And how much fossil fuel will it take to fuel these ships that r going to pump ocean water into the atmosphere?? in addition to alternative energy, green roofs can also help the heat island effect in big cities and the technology exists now...it just needs to be.... More

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anonymous
Karel 06/06/2010 18:30 PM

Climate change is normal. Some times its hot; some times is cold. Plants like the heat and CO2. Greenland used to be green you know. And there was no industry back then. There is no man made problem here. Now, for he legitimately concerned, you need to look at solar activity. And, how your going to stop that. :-) For the politicians, its about money (scam money - like in Europe), and how to tax the hell out of people and make them think its for their good.

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anonymous
Jack 05/15/2010 06:14 AM

The question is: How certain are you that Global Warming is going to be catastrophic? Projects to change the earth's atmosphere are *incredibly* risky, because we know very little about what the side effects will be. You better be damn well sure. Call me conservative, but I think I'd rather wait a few decades and see how things pan out before resorting to radical solutions.

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anonymous
Sir Daniel Tobin 05/14/2010 15:13 PM

I am honored and humbled to tell you that Bill Gates phoned me in my dorm when I was an undergrad at The Catholic University of America in 1989-90, when I shared a room with Mike Lehrer of Fla, who is now an attorney. Gates was on the David Letterman show soon after that call, and said that I was way ahead of my time, and I could be President, and Dave said,"CIA?They're good people over there?Which Party is he in? Can we say his name? Dan Tobin? One of those good Catholic families in the.... More

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anonymous
Bill Gates 05/12/2010 23:22 PM

My head has been in the clouds for a while, so I got this one figured out.

*high five*

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anonymous
stopbillgates 05/12/2010 17:36 PM

Sorry to make a pop culture reference, but this reminds me of the episode of the Simpsons where the "smart" people take over the town and quickly institute rules and policies that result in humorous yet catastrophic results.

the difference with gates's stuff is it isn't so humorous.

nearly everyone at my work thinks gates is a great humanitarian and philanthropist. they have no idea how wrong they are.

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anonymous
Amber 05/12/2010 13:28 PM

There is already people who spray chemicals in our air. It is dangerous and has been going on for well over 10 years now. I don't know how different this is but I hope the studies are being done intensively before any action is taken.

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anonymous
Joy HuntGermain 05/19/2010 20:02 PM

To Amber and Everyone Else:

YES! And BEWARE so-called "Experts", Politicians and Air Force who are bought off...to misrepresentations to public...and FALSE REMEDIES (also unknowingly (?) delivering false remedies as the U.S. Air Force) from the GET GO, such as "Weather Modification" and "Operation Cloverleaf" adacious Bills to Congress, etc.

And it goes on and on...which you already know.

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anonymous
Lydia 05/12/2010 12:29 PM

MORE CLOUDS CAUSE MORE GLOBAL WARMING!!!!
THEY TRAP HEAT INSIDE OUR ATMOSPHERE.
BILL GATES MUST BE A DUMB ***.

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anonymous
Mark 05/13/2010 03:43 AM

the ground absorbs the sunlight, it's re-radiated as InfraRed (IR) which CO2 bounces back, not the cloud.

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anonymous
Frank 05/19/2010 15:01 PM

Water vapour is, by far, the most effective Green House gas

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anonymous
Lydia 05/12/2010 12:30 PM

BILL GATES - BUY THE RAINFORESTS AND PLANT ONE MILLION TREES.

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anonymous
Max 05/11/2010 23:38 PM

If we really are as far along the global warming path as the environmentalists tell us, then the only viable altenatives are geoengineering and large scale sequestration. CO2 has a half life of 38 years in the atmosphere; if the world is already warming significantly with the current levels of CO2, then even if we didn't release more, it would still take a number of years before the current atmospheric levels would reduce to reverse warming.

SO2 from volcanos has a significant.... More

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anonymous
Chris 05/11/2010 19:15 PM

It will probably turn out in the end that they poisoned us all. Spraying unnatural chemicals in the air, which they have no long term studies for sounds like a great idea. Someone should outlaw it before they have a chance to spray it over our heads.

If they want to use it just test it on mars first. According to national geographic the polar ice caps are melting there too. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html.... More

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anonymous
Jerome S. Dodge 05/18/2010 15:15 PM

Enter your comments here
Although sea water is hardly an "unnatural chemical", it has been identified as a greenhouse 'gas'. The natural water cycle introduces distilled [evaporated] h20 to the atmosphere, which begs the question; "What will all that salt do?".

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anonymous
Gena 05/12/2010 16:48 PM

While I do share your trepidation about this idea overall, I don't know that I would call ocean water an "unnatural chemical".

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anonymous
srg 06/06/2011 19:16 PM

Ocean water may be an unnatural chemical by the time Fukushima is over with.

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anonymous
Chris 05/11/2010 19:13 PM

It will probably turn out in the end that they poisoned us all. Spraying unnatural chemicals in the air, which they have no long term studies for sounds like a great idea. Someone should outlaw it before they have a chance to spray it over our heads.

If they want to use it just test it on mars first. According to national geographic the polar ice caps are melting there too. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html )

There's dumb and then there's Al Gore

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anonymous
MotherLodeBeth 05/11/2010 18:59 PM

Maybe if we didnt have people living in McMansions, driving/flying all over the place, 100% off the grid, composting toilets, other pre 1950 ideas we would be producing less heat. People at less, we had few strip malls and fast food places. And getting all the needed mirrors into space may well mess up the upper atmosphere, turning the atmosphere above us into a freeway, just as we strive for further space travel. And mirrors that last usually use silver which is mined and often produced a.... More

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anonymous
Adam 05/11/2010 16:09 PM

Thanks for the article. We truly live in a time in which money and technical know-how can dramatically change things in a very short amount of time. That power combined with a shortage of insight or a disregard for uncertainty (which is not just a philosophical concept, but haunts the more rigorous disciplines of engineering, math, and science) is a recipe for disaster.

(Just fyi, you probably want to substitute an actual link where you wrote "link to my story on Royal Society presenting to.... More

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anonymous
Sagan 05/11/2010 16:06 PM

Venus has clouds. Its cool, right?

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anonymous
neo 05/11/2010 14:59 PM

Did they happen to watch the matrix?

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anonymous
Guest 05/11/2010 14:36 PM

omg its 35 at night in may. IM COLD stop it!

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anonymous
Guest 05/11/2010 14:26 PM

Its funny that there are so many posts that seem super worried about our world, and yet when someone proposes a viable method for slowing down global warming, i see only a single supportive comment on the idea. Most are just dumb. Like Jeff's comment about the profit system. This is not a move based on a financial return, for a long time now bill gates has turned into a philanthropist who is giving back to the world, even ungrateful like you. .... More

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anonymous
Nimrud 05/11/2010 14:03 PM

You don't have to be moral anymore to be environmentalist, just a bunch of money...

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anonymous
Kirsty 05/11/2010 11:58 AM

Why waste valuable money on mechancal trees, hello stop tearing down the forests, it's alot cheaper and it sucks up co2 naturally. For this cloud making idea aren't these ppl on they're boats going to disturb some animals in they're natural habbitat?? It's all so foolish just stop tearing down forrests and poisoning our oceans and skies

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anonymous
Nobby 05/11/2010 10:11 AM

Great idea and I am glad that Gates is using his billions in a worthy cause.

In fact, I would rather that he used some of the fortune that I and millions of others have given him to actually do something, rather than fork over taxes and duties to the government who then give the cash to the government to play with on the carbon markets.

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anonymous
judy bloom 05/11/2010 10:09 AM

Sea water clouds? Salt? The Romans didn't actually sow salt in Carthage, but Gates wants to? Beware geeks with ideas about climate who also think the earth is overpopulated.

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anonymous
Michael Tapp 05/11/2010 10:08 AM

Um, I think Mother Nature is going to be a little bit defiant about this idea.

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anonymous
mamam 05/11/2010 10:14 AM

If private industry doesn't step forward, who will? Government is hampered by the crazies who don't think climate change exists...it could take decades for that fight to settle down...meanwhile, we're losing valuable moments.

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anonymous
Kate 05/11/2010 12:05 PM

Our usage. This geoengineering business will be our undoing.

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anonymous
Jeff 05/11/2010 12:37 PM

It doesn't matter what we talk about.... The fact that we live in a profit system means that any investment is based on profit motive. This capitalist freemarket system turns our "democracy" into a Plutonomy. Any decision made now is in the interest of profit, not you and I.

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