Remember when blogs had spheres, and busted CBS news for running with fake stories that were never properly vetted? As I recall, there was this blog; little green soccer? Little green something. Anyway, it’s still happening at Watts Up With That. Willis E. saw a story that smelled fisky, and started asking questions. The story is about a R&D firm in San Fransisco that supposedly had received a large Gates foundation grant to pursue R&D on “geoengineering”, specifically a plan to create clouds in order to stop global warming (!) by blasting sea water into the atmosphere.
CBS says:
So it was that after the inconclusive results of the Copenhagen Conference, word came that Bill Gates had invested at least $4.5 million into geo-engineering research. The idea: Find a way to reflect solar energy and filter carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Now we’ve got an early look at one such company, which reportedly is developing a way to seed clouds by spraying seawater into the air.
The machines, developed by a San Francisco-based research group called Silver Lining, turn seawater into tiny particles that can be shot up over 3,000 feet in the air. The particles increase the density of clouds by increasing the amount of nuclei contained within. Silver Lining’s floating machines can suck up ten tons of water per second. If all goes well, Silver Lining plans to test the process with 10 ships spread throughout 3800 square miles of ocean. Geoengineering, an umbrella phrase to describe techniques that would allow humans to prevent global warming by manipulating the Earth’s climate, has yet to result in any major projects.
Well, in their own article, CBS backpedals with an “update” (not a correction):
A PR representative from Edelman later sent me this note from Ken Caldeira ofthe Carnegie Institution for Science: “Bill Gates made a grant to the University of Calgary to support research in possible unique solutions and responses to climate change. Administrating this research funding, David Keith of the University of Calgary and I made a grant to Armand Neukermanns for lab tests to investigate the technical feasibility of producing the fine seawater sprays required by the Latham cloud whitening proposal, one of many proposals for mitigating some of the adverse effects of climate change. This grant to Neukermanns is for lab tests only, not Silver Lining’s field trials.”
So now, Gates isn’t supporting the silver lining project, just some lab research at UC. So Willis goes to the silver lining project website, and finds:
The Silver Lining Project is a not-for-profit international scientific research collaboration to study the effects of particles (aerosols) on clouds, and the influence of these cloud effects on climate systems.
Well, that sure sounds impressive. Unfortunately, the web site is only four pages, and contains almost no information at all.
Not satisfied with this, he emails them, and gets:
Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists:
info@silverliningproj.org
Hello? This thing on?
Tags: CBS
