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Thanks to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted by our legal team, ICAN is uncovering who is funding geoengineering research and why. According to one disturbing grant obtained by ICAN, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded nearly $400,000 in 2021 to Cornell and Indiana University scientists who claimed to be able to achieve the “holy grail” of geoengineering research—by determining exactly what geoengineering can and cannot do.
The documents show the scientists believed their climate model simulations would solve the problem of “choosing where and when to inject aerosols” into the atmosphere when deploying stratospheric aerosol injections (SAI)—all for the purpose of achieving “global cooling.”
They devised tailorable, plug-and-play “injection choices” depending on climate goals and ironically named them “degrees of freedom.” So, where did they discuss injecting the atmosphere? The Arctic. Their “Arctic-focused” SAI strategy explored using aircraft to inject aerosols over the Arctic at lower altitudes because they believed it was plausible to do so with currently existing aircraft, without the need to develop new ones.
Concerningly, these researchers believe geoengineering could be “the only pathway to limit some climate change impacts” and hope their work will inform the process for deciding “if, when, where, and how geoengineering might be done in the future.”
Rest assured, ICAN has already sent a letter to the NSF urging it to cease all funding of geoengineering research, given the immense threat such activities pose to the health and safety of the American people. ICAN also directed its legal team to take action to pursue documents the NSF is withholding related to a workshop these scientists proposed to hold with “policy experts to discuss results and future directions.”
You too can make your voice heard by emailing the NSF and telling them you oppose public funding for geoengineering research. And please, cc us at [email protected] if you do!
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