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As part of its geoengineering investigation, ICAN’s legal team has submitted dozens of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA has been extremely evasive and our attorneys remain steadfast in their quest for clear answers.
Eight requests submitted by ICAN’s legal team asked NASA to search geoengineering scientists’ emails for specific geoengineering terms like “stratospheric aerosol injection.” But NASA has responded to nearly every request with excuses to avoid conducting a search—from claiming the search terms are too vague to insisting there are too many records to produce.
The agency even rewrote one FOIA request without ICAN’s permission by removing the scientist’s name! Conveniently, NASA then told ICAN that it had searched but couldn’t find any emails.
The few times NASA has turned over emails, they were heavily redacted. But in one instance, NASA apparently forgot to (improperly) redact a sentence about a 2019 workshop: “NASA ESD [Earth Science Division] has interest in this topic.” The workshop topic in question was “Observation-Based Studies to Understand Effects of Engineered Changes in Aerosol on the Climate System.” One wonders how you can observe changes that haven’t already occurred…
Steven Platnick (then Deputy Director of Atmospheres at NASA ESD) gave a presentation at that workshop. It involved an overview of the satellite instruments and sensors suitable for geoengineering research that NASA already has and an outline of its plans to develop more platforms for stratospheric observations.
For an agency planning missions to Mars, NASA’s FOIA process is light years behind where it should be, even requiring certain filings by snail mail. Undeterred by bureaucratic red tape, ICAN’s legal team has submitted appeals aimed at lifting the redactions and getting the emails produced in full.
If NASA is planning geoengineering activities, the American people deserve to know—and ICAN will get those answers. Stay tuned.
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