--- title: "Harvard Halts Plans for Controversial Geoengineering Experiment" description: "A controversial Harvard University-led project called Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment was put on hold to await preliminary test results." date: "2021-03-31" modified: "2021-03-31" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/harvard-halts-plans-for-controversial-geoengineering-experiment" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "solar geoengineering" --- # Harvard Halts Plans for Controversial Geoengineering Experiment ![A controversial Harvard University-led project called Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment was put on hold to await preliminary test results.]() *\Image: NASA\* Solar geoengineering is a highly controversial concept to [combat climate change](). The idea is to block some of Sun's energy from reaching the Earth's surface by reflecting it back into space with small particles in the stratosphere. But experts are still not entirely sure about the risks involved, how well it would work — or indeed if it would work at all. And that has scientists worried. A Harvard University-led project called Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx) was planning to release weather balloons high up into the sky to release small particles in order to test the theory. But the team decided to suspend all plans to kick off the project later this year, [*MIT Technology Review* reports](). An advisory committee at Harvard recommended that the SCoPEx team delay plans for releasing the balloons over Sweden this summer, and the team obliged. The committee advised that the researchers do some preliminary equipment tests and reach out to Sweden's public first. "Whether or not research on geoengineering should be conducted is an important discussion that should continue within the scientific community, as well as with other stakeholders and the general public," reads an [official statement]() by the Swedish Space Corporation. The committee is now working to engage with the Swedish public to gauge their response to the controversial project. "Our research team intends to listen closely to this public engagement process to inform the experiment moving forward," principal investigator Frank Ketusch said in a statement, as quoted by *MIT*. "It is clear from the feedback that there is a broadly shared commitment to research that can help prevent climate change from worsening," the advisory committee wrote in [a statement](). "It is also clear that there is a lack of consensus about research related to geoengineering." That means the project likely won't launch until 2022. The researchers are also still open to conducting first flights in other parts of Sweden, according to *MIT*. The news comes after the US National Academies of Sciences (NAS) [released a report last week]() recommending to expenditures of between $100 and $200 million over five years to research the feasibility of solar geoengineering. "Preliminary modeling work indicates that these approaches do have the potential to reduce some near-term risks of climate change," [a summary]() of the report read. Experts are divided on if we should even study the controversial process. "Given the urgency of the climate crisis, solar geoengineering needs to be studied further,” NAS president Marcia McNutt [told *The Guardian*](). "But just as with advances in fields such as artificial intelligence or gene editing, science needs to engage the public to ask not just can we, but should we?" **READ MORE:** [Geoengineering researchers have halted plans for a balloon launch in Sweden]() \[*MIT Technology Review*\] **More on solar geoengineering:** *[Top US Scientists Propose Research Into Blocking Sun to Fight Climate Change]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()