--- title: "Tech Bros Releasing Climate-Hacking Chemicals From “Stealth” RV" description: "Some Silicon Valley tech bros are being paid to ride along California's coast in a Winnebago releasing balloons of sulfur dioxide." date: "2024-09-26" modified: "2024-09-26" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tech-bros-geoengineering-stealth-rv" categories: - "Climate Change" - "Cybersecurity" - "Environment" - "Future Society" - "Hacking" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "carbon credits" - "cloud seeding" - "geoengineering" - "the digest" --- # Tech Bros Releasing Climate-Hacking Chemicals From “Stealth” RV ![Some Silicon Valley tech bros are being paid to ride along California's coast in a Winnebago releasing balloons of sulfur dioxide.]() *\Image: Juan Melli / Getty Images\* ## Coasting on Fumes A group of Silicon Valley guys are releasing [potentially planet-cooling chemicals]() into the atmosphere — and are doing so from a nondescript Winnebago touring around Central California's coastline. As the [*New York Times* reports,]() the millennials behind a startup called Make Sunsets have raised $1 million in venture capital to send gigantic balloons filled with sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. They call it "stratospheric aerosol injections" or SAI, and believe that the chemicals, which are technically pollutants, will reflect sunlight out and away from the Earth below, resulting in demonstrable cooling of our climate. "We’re stealth," teased Make Sunsets cofounder Luke Iseman as a *NYT* reporter rode along in the back of the camper. "This looks like just another RV." Founded by Iseman and his fellow Y Combinator alum Andrew Song, the startup has gotten into the business of selling so-called "[carbon credits]()" to companies looking to offset their emissions via the experimental technology that [many believe]() will [help mitigate climate change](). ## Scientists Say The only problem? There are lots of [academics]() and [politicians]() alike who think what they're doing is [bullshit at best]() and [harmful at worst](). "They are a couple of tech bros who have no expertise in doing what they’re claiming to do," explained Sikina Jinnah, a University of California Santa Cruz environmental science professor who's studied climate geoengineering schemes like the one undertaken by the startup. "They’re not scientists and they’re making claims about cooling credits that nobody has validated." With four pounds of sulfur dioxide released into the atmosphere in a single giant weather balloon, Make Sunsets fulfills 1,700 cooling credits that, as the *NYT* notes, the startup sold for a combined total of $2,200. According to a [blog post penned by Iseman](), their research led them to believe that each credit offsets one ton of carbon dioxide for a full year. Michael Gerrard, a Columbia University legal scholar who founded the school's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, suggested in an interview with the *NYT* that despite their lofty claims, there's something fishy about Make Sunsets' logic. "There doesn’t seem to be any transparency behind their calculations," said Gerrard, who like Jinnah has studied geoengineering. "I don’t want to overplay my scientific knowledge, but what little I have makes me deeply suspicious." Between there being no regulatory body or standardization overseeing these credits and there being little transparency as to what their own calculations include, it's impossible to know how legit the startup's claims of carbon offsets really are. To Iseman, however, those criticisms are beside the point. "The fact that we’re doing it makes it more likely that others will do it," the 41-year-old entrepreneur concluded. **More on climate hackers:** [*Scientist Defends Plan to Release Huge Amounts of Sulfur Into the Stratosphere*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()