Alameda City Council
June 4, 2024

From: Tracy Jensen
To: Lara Weisiger
Subject: 7-B Article
Date: Monday, June 3, 2024 1:27:41 PM
Attachments: OutlookEmoji-1674510816335699d0822-9426-4d38-8ac0-a6ddb86ee37a.png Hi Lara, Please attach this article to item 7-B and share with councilmembers and staff.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/geoengineering-test-quietly- launches-salt-crystals-into-atmosphere/
Tracy Jensen
Alameda City Council
voice/text: 510-912-5556
city-of-Alameda-logotype
APRIL 4, 2024 4 MIN READ
Geoengineering Test Quietly Launches Salt Crystals
into Atmosphere
A solar geoengineering experiment in San Francisco could lead to brighter clouds that reect sunlight. The risks are numerous

BY CORBIN HIAR & E&E NEWS
An aerial view of a layer of stratocumulus clouds. SubstanceP/Getty Images Climate Change
CLIMATEWIRE | The nation's rst outdoor test to limit global warming by increasing cloud cover launched Tuesday from the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay.

The experiment, which organizers didn't widely announce to avoid public backlash, marks the acceleration of a contentious eld of research known as solar radiation modication. The concept involves shooting substances such as aerosols into the sky to reect sunlight away from the Earth.

The move led by researchers at the University of Washington has renewed questions about how to eectively and ethically study promising climate technologies that could also harm communities and ecosystems in unexpected ways. The experiment is spraying microscopic salt particles into the air, and the secrecy surrounding its timing caught even some experts o guard. "Since this experiment was kept under wraps until the test started, we are eager to see how public engagement is being planned and who will be involved," said Shuchi Talati, the executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, a nonprot that seeks to include developing countries in decisions about solar modication, also known as geoengineering. She is not involved in the experiment and only learned about it after being contacted by a reporter.
"While it complies with all current regulatory requirements, there is a clear need to reexamine what a strong regulatory framework must look like in a world where [solar radiation modication] experimentation is happening," Talati added.

The Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement, or CAARE, project is using specially built sprayers to shoot trillions of sea salt particles into the sky in an eort to increase the density — and reective capacity — of marine clouds. The experiment is taking place, when conditions permit, atop the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum in Alameda, California, and will run through the end of May, according to a weather modication form the team led with federal regulators.

The project comes as global heat continues to obliterate monthly and yearly temperature records and amid growing interest in solar radiation modication from Silicon Valley funders and some environmental groups. It also follows the termination of a Harvard University experiment last month that planned to inject reective aerosols into the stratosphere near Sweden before it was canceled after encountering opposition from Indigenous groups.

Solar radiation modication is controversial because widespread use of technologies like marine cloud brightening could alter weather patterns in unclear ways and potentially limit the productivity of sheries and farms. It also wouldn't address the main cause of climate change — the use of fossil fuels — and could lead to a catastrophic spike in global temperatures if major geoengineering activities were discontinued before greenhouse gases decrease to manageable levels.

The University of Washington and SilverLining, a geoengineering research advocacy group involved in the CAARE project, declined interview requests.

The mayor of Alameda, where the experiment is being conducted, didn't respond to emailed questions about the project.

The secrecy surrounding the landmark experiment seems to have been by design, according to The New York Times, which, along with a local newspaper, was granted exclusive access to cover the initial ring of the spray cannons. "The idea of interfering with nature is so contentious, organizers of Tuesday's test kept the details tightly held, concerned that critics would try to stop them," the Times reported. The White House also distanced itself from the experiment, which is being conducted with the cooperation of a Smithsonian- aliated museum.

The project team has touted its transparency, noting that visitors to the USS Hornet, which now serves as a oating museum, will be able to view the experiment.
"The world needs to rapidly advance its understanding of the eects of aerosol particles on climate,” Kelly Wanser, the executive director of SilverLining, said in a press release. "With a deep commitment to open science and a culture of humility, the University of Washington has developed an approach that integrates science with societal engagement, and can help society in essential steps toward advancing science, developing regulations, promoting equitable and eective decision-making, and building shared understanding in these areas."
The CAARE project is part of a larger coastal study that the University of Washington consortium is planning to pursue. The second phase of that eort would take place on a pier around a mile oshore in a coastal environment, according to a study description the school released Monday.

While a peer review of that proposal was generally positive, the scientists also agged some transparency shortcomings.
"One reviewer noted that it would help to have more information on the site location," said a Washington-University-commissioned report. "Is there local resistance or concerns (whether founded or unfounded) around issues like local air quality, etc.? How many options exist, and how do dierent options aect the eld study plan?"
The study plan also made no mention of its potential ecological impacts, a key consideration recommended by a 2022 Biden administration marine cloud brightening workshop. That's a signicant oversight, according to Greg Goldsmith, the associate dean for research and development at Chapman University.
"History has shown us that when we insert ourselves into modication of nature, there are always very serious unintended consequences," said Goldsmith, who studies the implications of climate change for plant structure and function. "And therefore, it would be prudent to listen to what history has shown and look for consequences."
Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2024.

E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

Editor’s Note (4/8/24): Our partners at Climatewire have edited this article after posting to clarify that neither Shuchi Talati nor the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering is involved in the described solar geoengineering project.

Popular Stories
CORBIN HIAR is a reporter at E&E News.

More by Corbin Hiar
E&E NEWS provides essential energy and environment news for professionals.

More by E&E News
OPINION MAY 30, 2024
Voyager 1’s Revival Offers
Inspiration for Everyone on Earth
Instruments may fail, but humanity’s most distant sentinel will keep exploring, and inspiring us all
SASWATO R. DAS
OPINION MAY 25, 2024
How the Guinness Brewery
Invented the Most Important
Statistical Method in Science
The most common test of statistical signicance originated from the Guinness brewery. Here’s how it works

JACK MURTAGH
CLIMATE CHANGE MAY 29, 2024
Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Is
Melting Even Faster Than
Scientists Thought
Warming waters are reaching several miles into Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier—nicknamed the “doomsday glacier”
because of its potential impact on sea-level rise

SACHI KITAJIMA MULKEY, GRIST
OPINION MAY 30, 2024
Brain Scans of Jazz Musicians
Reveal How to Reach a Creative
‘Flow State’
Both expertise and the ability to release one’s focus can help people enter a state of eortless attention
JOHN KOUNIOS, DAVID S. ROSEN

OPINION MAY 30, 2024
Neurodivergent Kids Flourish
When They’re Taught How Their
Brains Work
When teachers and parents talk to kids about having
ADHD, autism or learning disabilities, they set them up for success

JEROME SCHULTZ
PLANETARY SCIENCE MAY 30, 2024
Superstorm-Spawning Sunspot
Cluster Is Facing Earth Again.

What’s Next?
The massive sunspot region that gave Earthlings stunning auroral displays earlier in May is back from its trip around the far side of the sun

MEGHAN BARTELS