Alarm on experiment aimed at changing global systems

Amidst revelations in this past weekend’s London Times that a team of scientists and engineers funded by billionaire Bill Gates are planning to carry out a 10,000 square kilometer field trial of controversial “cloud-whitening” technology, over one hundred civil society groups are urging governments meeting on biological diversity in Nairobi to immediately  stop risky geoengineering experiments aimed at large-scale technological schemes to intentionally alter the planet’s systems as a quick fix for climate change.

The San Francisco based “Silver Lining Project” directed by entrepreneur
Kelly Wanser has so far received $300,000 from Bill Gates to develop
technologies that will increase the whiteness of marine clouds.
Theoretically, executed on a massive scale, whiter clouds could increase
the earth’s albedo, reflecting more sunlight back to space and thereby
reduce global warming (without changing the composition of greenhouse gases
which cause warming).

The Silver Lining Project has decided to press ahead
with plans to alter cloud-cover over an undisclosed 10,000 square kilometre
patch of ocean (as large as the BP oil slick was a few days ago).

If not stopped, the Gates ‘cloud-bleaching’ experiment would be the largest known
geoengineering field trial to date. Its effects could include changes in
rainfall and other altered weather patterns.

Among the sites frequently spoken of by scientists engaged in this research are the Pacific coasts of North and South America (specifically California, Ecuador, Peru and Chile).

Most worrisome, the Times revealed: “The British and American scientists involved do not intend to wait for international rules on technology that deliberately alters the climate.” Such rules could be set in motion this week as scientists and diplomats from 193 nations meet under the auspices of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s scientific body.

The meeting in Nairobi of SBSTTA 14 (Subsidiary Body of Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, running from May 10-21 2010) is the first time a UN body has addressed geoengineering as a whole since the signing of the ENMOD
Treaty in Geneva in 1976 that banned environmental modification for
“hostile uses”.

A new global coalition will be urging governments in Nairobi to adopt a moratorium on all geoengineering experiments, just as the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted a moratorium on ocean fertilization in 2008.
Over one hundred organizations and individuals, including leading names in the environmental and global justice movement have joined the H.O.M.E. campaign: Hands off Mother Earth ­– Our home is not a laboratory (www.handsoffmotherearth.org).

“Our home planet Earth should not be treated as a laboratory for risky geoengineering experiments,”  Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group in Mexico said from the Nairobi SBSTTA meeting.

“Human-caused climate change already threatens our lands, seas, food supply and rights. We do not want to embark on another dangerous experiment with our planet. If they think that the people and governments of Ecuador, Peru or Chile – or anywhere else they might try – will stand idly by as they mess with our oceans, clouds and weather, they are in for a surprise. Delegates here are shocked by these plans,” she said.

“We knew Microsoft was developing cloud applications for computers but we didn’t expect this,” explained Jim Thomas of ETC Group, one of the founding organizations of the HOME campaign

“Bill Gates and his cloud-wrenching cronies have no right to unilaterally change our seas and skies in this way. A global moratorium on geoengineering experiments just became a whole lot more urgent and the meeting in Nairobi is a fine place to ensure that it gets put into place rapidly.

(For more information about Hands Off Mother Earth Campaign see
 http://www.handsoffmotherearth.org)