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With the United Kingdom poised to begin geoengineering experiments, ICAN is sounding the alarm to policymakers at the highest levels of the U.S. and U.K. governments.
Through its legal team, ICAN has sent letters to the U.S. Secretary of State, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Defense, UN ambassador, and the U.K.’s Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA), and Secretary of State for the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT), warning of the dangers these experiments pose to our health, the environment, informed consent, and national security.
In September 2024, ARIA allocated £56.8m (about $75 million) to research whether geoengineering could be used to cool the earth. Concerningly, unlike other geoengineering research programs that limit their research to computer modeling, ARIA’s “Exploring Climate Cooling” program will conduct outdoor experiments to “test” and “validate” sun-blocking methods.
In fact, the Climate Cooling program has already funded five planned outdoor projects. The experiments include spraying clouds with novel spray technology, manipulating clouds’ electrical charges, and launching specially adapted weather balloons from sites in the U.S. and/or U.K. to study how high altitude affects minerals being considered for use in stratospheric aerosol injection. In response, U.K. citizens have filed a petition to ban geoengineering in the U.K.
While ARIA claims “program transparency, public participation and consultation” are core to the program, the agency itself is shockingly exempt from the U.K.’s Freedom of Information Act. Undeterred, ICAN’s attorneys are pursuing all options to obtain information about these experiments, including seeking any communications of American researchers to see if they are collaborating with their British counterparts.
ICAN encourages those of you who understand the importance of informed consent to take action! Send your own message to ARIA in support of ICAN’s letter, asking it to halt its climate-cooling experiments. Simply click here, scroll down to “Get in touch,” select “General enquiry,” and then type in your message in the free text field. If you send a message, we’d love to see a copy of it! Please copy and paste your message to ARIA into an email and send it to us at [email protected].
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