Climate Change Activists to Stop Global Warming by Pumping Chemicals into the Air?

Soloviova Liudmyla / shutterstock.com
Soloviova Liudmyla / shutterstock.com

If you haven’t heard, global warming is killing our planet. Luckily, one climate activist has a solution: Let’s pump some more chemicals into the air for a quick fix.

I mean, what could go wrong?

And no, I’m not joking.

Enter Luke Iseman, co-founder of Make Sunsets. His company has developed a plan that he’s positive will work and just might be the only thing we can do to save our world and future. It’s a fairly simple and inexpensive process, too.

Basically, you take weather balloons, stuff them full of sulfur, and program them to steadily release that sulfur into the atmosphere to create particles that will screen and protect the Earth from the sun’s warming rays. With enough sulfur in the air, the idea is that it will act much like a volcano would, ensuring that the planet is cooled down a bit.

It’s got to work, right?

According to Iseman, we don’t really have any other options, and the time to act is now before all is officially lost.

As he told The Telegraph, “I think that pretty quickly leads a rational person to an uncomfortable conclusion that we have a moral obligation to already be doing this at scale. Every day we don’t do this is causing needless harm to people and ecosystems.”

Make Sunsets says that the plan will work. In fact, they are already getting ready to launch a balloon filled with 4.4 pounds of sulfur into the air.

It might not seem like a lot, but according to the company, it doesn’t take much. Apparently, just one gram of the odorous stuff can offset a full ton of carbon emissions for a year.

And besides, it’s really cost-effective.

Funding for the project is being paid for by selling “cooling credits.” These credits, sold for $15 each, buy one gram of sulfur, which, as I explained, will supposedly go a long way.

The only problem, of course, is that no one really knows if the plan will work for sure.

Why?

Well, for one, Iseman and his team are so gung-ho about doing this and doing it now that literally no real-world experiments have been conducted.

This also means that no government in the world has approved of a plan that could and, according to the project, will impact the whole planet. This, of course, is one of the main reasons many scientists, biologists, etc., aren’t exactly excited about Iseman’s immediate plans.

Take Lili Fuhr of the Center for International Environmental Law, for example. As she explains, no one really knows what this will do on a large scale.

Sure, the theory is that it will cool the planet some. But will it also affect other things like precipitation patterns that the Earth is also dependent on for life?

Large-scale solar geoengineering developments have already been stopped by many scientists for that very reason, fearing that messing with the Earth’s atmosphere could deplete the ozone layer or change how much rain falls and where. It could even mess up the monsoon season, which, if you didn’t know, millions of people worldwide depend on for sustenance.

And as Fuhr says, if you are potentially going to affect everyone’s life, then everyone should have a say in the plan.

For famous British biologist, natural historian, and documentarian David Attenborough, the plan is also more than a bit fascist at heart. Sure, it may have good intentions, but essentially, you’re giving more power to developed nations.

Literally, this is weather tampering, and who knows where that could lead if certain nations are given that power.

There is also a concern that putting a few balloons in the air might not be the best move for global peace right now. But that’s a whole other conversation…