A geoengineering startup Stardust Solutions has raised $60 million to lay the groundwork for tech that could be used to dim the Sun, Heatmap News reports.
The concept behind geoengineering is as simple as it is controversial among scientists. By spraying aerosol particles into the Earth’s atmosphere from a plane or weather balloon, a growing cohort of researchers is hoping to turn down the temperature in an effort to combat global warming.
According to Politico, it’s the “largest-ever fundraising round” for any company in the sector. Investors include Silicon Valley luminaries and an Italian industrial dynasty, per the outlet.
In light of the growing climate crisis, Stardust Solutions CEO — and former top Israeli government physicist — Yanai Yedvab admitted that redirecting the Sun’s rays through “solar radiation management” is only the beginning and won’t entirely mitigate the risks.
“There will still be extreme weather events,” he told Heatmap. “We’re not preventing them altogether.”
The funding round is particularly notable considering Stardust Solutions is an entirely private entity. Other similar but unaffiliated efforts have usually been led by educational institutions and nonprofits, as Heatmap points out.
By sending tiny airborne chemicals such as sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere, many scientists have hoped to harness the effects of major volcanic eruptions, which have been shown to measurably cool the entire world’s surface for years at a time.
However, Yedvab told Heatmap that sulfates are a “poor option,” given the already major contamination in the atmosphere, which could make monitoring geoengineering projects difficult. They may also damage the ozone layer.
Instead, Yedvab and his colleagues are developing a “scalable or realistic particle that we know from the start how to produce at scale in the millions of tons” and at a relatively low cost. It would also have to be “as safe as, say, flour,” he told Heatmap.
The company is currently developing a proprietary particle and is seeking a patent for it.
Yedvab told Politico that the company is planning to kick off “controlled outdoor experiments” as soon as April, releasing particles from a modified plane at an altitude of eleven miles.
The concept has already drawn plenty of skepticism, with critics pointing out glaring questions regarding governance. In other words, who gets to decide where these particles are released?
Others have pointed out the many unknown risks of geoengineering, arguing that the pros may outweigh the cons.
It’s a highly controversial approach to combating climate change, with city officials in Alameda, California, ordering scientists from the University of Washington to halt an unannounced experiment using a device that would inject cloud-brightening particles into the atmosphere last year.
Harvard researchers also ceased an atmospheric geoengineering experiment last year following delays and public criticism.
Not everybody’s convinced of the startup’s plans. University of Chicago professor and climate scientist David Keith told the publication that he thinks it’s impossible to develop an inert particle that is “better than sulfates,” especially given the decades of existing research.
“They have convinced Silicon Valley [venture capitalists] to give them a lot of money, and I would say that they shouldn’t have,” Columbia Business School climate economist Gernot Wagner told Politico. “I don’t think it is a reasonable path to suggest that there’s going to be somebody — the US government, another government, whoever — who buys Stardust, buys the [intellectual property] for a billion bucks [and] makes the VC investors gazillions.”
“I don’t think that is, at all, reasonable,” he added.
For his part, Yedvab told Heatmap that “we will only participate in deployment, which will be done under adequate governance led by governments. When you’re dealing with such an issue, you should have very clear guiding principles.”
More on geoengineering: Scientists Secretly Working on Plan to Test Blocking Sun From Huge Area of Earth