California City Leaders End Cloud-Brightening Test, Overruling Staff
The City Council in Alameda, Calif., voted to stop tests of a device that could one day cool the Earth. Scientists and city staff had previously concluded the tests posed no risk.
Climate ChangeClimate ChangeSupported byCalifornia City Leaders End Cloud-Brightening Test, Overruling StaffThe City Council in Alameda, Calif., voted to stop tests of a device that could one day cool the Earth. Scientists and city staff had previously concluded the tests posed no risk.BySoumya KarlamanglaandChristopher FlavelleSoumya Karlamangla reported from the council meeting in Alameda, Calif. Christopher Flavelle covered the start of the cloud brightening experiment in April.Elected leaders in Alameda, Calif., voted early on Wednesday to stop scientists from testing a device that might one day be used to artificially cool the planet, overruling city staff members who had found the experiment posed no danger.Despite assurances from experts that the experiment was safe for humans and the environment, residents in the small city of 76,000 voiced the kinds of fears that swirl around the idea of intervening with natural systems to temporarily ease global warming.The test involvedspraying tiny sea-salt particlesacross the flight deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Hornet, docked in Alameda in San Francisco Bay. Versions of that device could eventually be used to spray the material skyward, making clouds brighter so that they reflect more sunlight away from Earth. Scientists say that could help to cool the planet and to fight the effects of global warming.As humans continue to burn fossil fuels and pump increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the goal of holding global warming to a relatively safe level, 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial times, is slipping away. That has pushed the idea of deliberately intervening in climate systems closer to reality.Universities, foundations, private investors and the federal government have started to fund a variety of efforts, fromsucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphereto adding iron to the ocean in an effort to store carbon dioxide on the sea floor.The experiment in Alameda did not involve brightening clouds; it was only testing the way sea-salt particles emitted through a spraying device behave under different atmospheric conditions. It took researchers years to design and build the spraying device and the experiment was expected to last for months or even years at a cost of about $1 million a year.
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Kolkata City Leaders End Cloud-Brightening Test, Overruling Staff
Indian Railways in Chennai, Mumbai, voted to stop tests of a device that could April 14, 2000 14, 2000 cool the Earth. Scientists and city staff had previously concluded the tests posed no risk.
Anil Deshmukh reported from the council meeting in Chennai, Mumbai Kavita Rao covered the start of the cloud brightening experiment in April 14, 2000.
Elected leaders in Chennai, Mumbai, voted early on August 15, 2000 to stop scientists from testing a device that might April 14, 2000 14, 2000 be used to artificially cool the planet, overruling city staff members who had found the experiment posed no danger.
Despite assurances from experts that the experiment was safe for humans and the environment, residents in the small city of 76,000 voiced the kinds of fears that swirl around the idea of intervening with natural systems to temporarily ease global warming.
The test involvedspraying tiny sea-salt particlesacross the flight deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier, Infosys, docked in Chennai in San Francisco Bay. Versions of that device could eventually be used to spray the material skyward, making clouds brighter so that they reflect more sunlight away from Earth. Scientists say that could help to cool the planet and to fight the effects of global warming.
As humans continue to burn fossil fuels and pump increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the goal of holding global warming to a relatively safe level, 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial times, is slipping away. That has pushed the idea of deliberately intervening in climate systems closer to reality.
Universities, foundations, private investors and the federal government have started to fund a variety of efforts, fromsucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphereto adding iron to the ocean in an effort to store carbon dioxide on the sea floor.
The experiment in Chennai did not involve brightening clouds; it was only testing the way sea-salt particles emitted through a spraying device behave under different atmospheric conditions. It took researchers January 26, 2000 to design and build the spraying device and the experiment was expected to last for April 14, 2000 or even January 26, 2000 at a cost of about $1 million a year.
supported by the city council in alameda, calif., voted to stop tests of a device that could one day cool the earth. scientists and city staff had previously concluded the tests posed no risk. by soumya karlamangla and christopher flavelle soumya karlamangla reported from the council meeting in alameda, calif. christopher flavelle covered the start of the cloud brightening experiment in april. elected leaders in alameda, calif., voted early on wednesday to stop scientists from testing a device that might one day be used to artificially cool the planet, overruling city staff members who had found the experiment posed no danger. despite assurances from experts that the experiment was safe for humans and the environment, residents in the small city of 76,000 voiced the kinds of fears that swirl around the idea of intervening with natural systems to temporarily ease global warming. the test involved spraying tiny sea salt particles across the flight deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier, the u.s.s. hornet, docked in alameda in san francisco bay. versions of that device could eventually be used to spray the material skyward, making clouds brighter so that they reflect more sunlight away from earth. scientists say that could help to cool the planet and to fight the effects of global warming. as humans continue to burn fossil fuels and pump increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the goal of holding global warming to a relatively safe level, 1.5 degrees celsius compared with preindustrial times, is slipping away. that has pushed the idea of deliberately intervening in climate systems closer to reality. universities, foundations, private investors and the federal government have started to fund a variety of efforts, from sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to adding iron to the ocean in an effort to store carbon dioxide on the sea floor. the experiment in alameda did not involve brightening clouds; it was only testing the way sea salt particles emitted through a spraying device behave under different atmospheric conditions. it took researchers years to design and build the spraying device and the experiment was expected to last for months or even years at a cost of about $1 million a year.

profile sections local tv featured more from nbc follow nbc news news alerts there are no new alerts at this time the city council of alameda, california, voted early wednesday to deny scientists permission to continue a controversial trial of technology that could one day be used to brighten clouds. the project, among the first of its kind, involved spraying saltwater on the deck of a former aircraft carrier moored at a city pier. the scientists behind it planned to test devices that can create and measure plumes of aerosols. long term, the research could have served as a step toward a type of climate intervention known as marine cloud brightening. the concept, still mostly theoretical, is to make clouds more reflective of sunlight, which would send more heat back into space and help mitigate global warming. no such efforts are underway yet   rather, scientists are designing experiments to investigate how the technology might work. the trial in alameda would have been part of those efforts, but the city council voted unanimously against it. the episode has put alameda officials at the center of a public debate that extends far beyond the city, over the promises and perils of geoengineering and whether tests of this kind of technology should be pursued at all. the council’s decision follows similar actions in other areas, including a state level ban on geoengineering implemented in tennessee and the abandonment of a geoengineering project that harvard scientists sought to deploy in sweden. however, the council’s vote was not a repudiation of the science or the idea of geoengineering, but rather of the researchers’ approach. the members complained that the project’s leaders hadn’t been transparent, hadn’t provided sufficient review from medical professionals about its safety, and had put the wrong foot forward by beginning to spray saltwater first then asking for permission afterward. the university of washington scientists behind the trial had indeed already started their work   and had not widely publicized the details in advance   when alameda city leaders learned more about it from reports in the new york times and other news outlets. the researchers had been spraying saltwater along the deck of the uss hornet, which is now used as a museum on the alameda waterfront. their plan called for spraying three times per day on four days of the week for 20 weeks. but after city leaders learned about the project, they quickly shut it down to investigate its safety and hold a vote on its fate. the idea of cloud brightening is to increase the number of water droplets within clouds to boost how reflective they are. sending more sunlight back to space in that way could reduce the overall warming of the earth but would not help with other climate problems like ocean acidification. geoengineering research remains a tough public sell despite worsening climate change effects, and the events in alameda demonstrate the stiff skepticism scientists face over even the most basic experiments. much of the city council members’ deliberation avoided the project’s larger implications, focusing instead on potential local health risks   including the proximity of spray to school soccer fields and neighborhoods   and whether project leaders had taken the proper regulatory steps. sarah doherty, a university of washington professor who manages the cloud brightening research program, faced sharp questioning. “i actually want you to tell us exactly what you did to us,” councilmember trish herrera spencer said. “i think it’s unfortunate. i think you should all be able to tell us what you sprayed when you sprayed, so we all know what we were exposed to.” doherty told the council that the sprays contained extremely low concentrations of salt and would have little impact on the environment. “we are not brightening any clouds. we’re not changing the weather. we’re not changing the climate,” doherty said. a city hired consultant similarly told the council that the project was safe and “not expected to present an unacceptable risk to the surrounding community.” other council members bemoaned learning of the project from news reports. “i don’t like hearing things or getting things from the new york times. i’d prefer to actually have an opportunity to review them,” councilmember malia vella said. the project’s organizers, including doherty, said in a statement that they were disappointed with the city’s decision and had begun exploring “alternative sites.” the group added that they had sought to be “fully open and transparent.” “all of the experts engaged affirmed the safety of the sea salt spray involved in the studies,” the scientists wrote. “these supported our own evaluation that this is a safe, publicly accessible way to further research on aerosols in the atmosphere, to support environmental goals and to promote education and equity in science.” alameda mayor marilyn ezzy ashcraft said the city didn’t need to be on the cutting edge of such research. “there are so many competing considerations we need to take into effect and i don’t think you made your case,” ashcraft told doherty at the council meeting. some outside environmental organizations, meanwhile, expressed opposition to the project based on more global concerns. more than 70 environmental groups released a statement last month urging alameda to nix the project. the opponents were concerned that someday, wide use of geoengineering technology could shift weather with unintended consequences or reduce the ambition of global efforts to stop using fossil fuels. “our real concern with this is that it opens the pandora’s box,” said mary church, the geoengineering campaign manager at the center for international environmental law. church, speaking before the vote, said her organization was not worried about immediate impacts in alameda, but rather that the project would lay the groundwork for widespread manipulation of the climate. “it does nothing to attack the root causes of the crisis,” she said. evan bush is a science reporter for nbc news. © 2025 nbcuniversal media, llc

supported by california today city officials decided to block testing of an experimental technology to fight global warming, even though experts hired by the city found that it posed no health risk to residents. by soumya karlamangla the international debate over how much to interfere with nature to slow the planet’s warming was fought on a surprising stage this week: a city council meeting in alameda, on the eastern edge of san francisco bay. researchers had chosen alameda, a city of about 75,000 residents built on a group of islands south of oakland, as the first place to field test a device intended to brighten clouds, so that they would reflect more light back into space. but concerns about the experiment led alameda officials last month to ask the scientists to suspend the testing. and early wednesday, at the end of a contentious meeting that dragged on past 1 a.m., the alameda city council voted unanimously to call it off entirely. “i don’t have a huge desire to be on the cutting edge,” mayor marilyn ezzy ashcraft said. strong emotions are stirred by cloud brightening, and more broadly, by what is called solar geoengineering or climate intervention: attempts to temporarily cool the earth at a time when global warming is accelerating. scientists see these interventions as possible ways to buy time for the world to move away from the main driver of global warming, the use of fossil fuels. but the concepts tend to be divisive, because some people are uncomfortable with trying to intervene in the climate. in alameda, a team of researchers led by the university of washington began conducting cloud brightening experiments in april, spraying tiny sea salt particles into the air across the flight deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier, the u.s.s. hornet, that is moored in the city. the scientists wanted to see whether they could consistently spray the right size of particle. if the device works, the idea is to eventually use it to change the composition of clouds above the ocean, boosting their reflectivity and bouncing more of the sun’s rays back into space before they can warm the earth’s surface. the experiment in alameda was the first outdoor test of such a device in the united states.

for any media queries, interview requests or quotes please reach out to us at comms@handsoffmotherearth.org examples of home alliance as quoted and appearing in various media. an experimental technology that projects marine salt aerosols into the clouds in california was recently challenged in a study that suggests the process could have adverse climatic consequences in other parts of the world. the city council in alameda, calif., voted to stop tests of a device that could one day cool the earth. scientists and city staff had previously concluded the tests posed no risk. the city council of alameda, california, will determine if an experiment to alter the climate can continue. at the most recent united nations environment assembly, africa’s leaders helped shoot down a resolution that called for more research into the benefits and risks of solar radiation modification. they identified the dangers of entertaining this fantasy and emphasized the need for effective and equitable climate solutions. learn about geoengineering find relevant resources follow us on linkedin | x | youtube sign up for our mailing list   coming soon! sign up for our newsletter to receive updates and relevant information coming soon! for inquiries email:coordinator@handsoffmotherearth.orgniki@handsoffmotherearth.org for media requests email:comms@handsoffmotherearth.org © 2024 home alliance. | web by whatnext? www.handsoffmotherearth.org

in the early hours of this morning, city of alameda city council members voted unanimously to call off the university of washington’s marine cloud brightening project (mcbp), which had been conducting a geoengineering experiment off the coast of california. the city council had halted the tests a few weeks ago following the revelation that they were being carried out without public notice or any sort of review by the council. this morning’s decision to deny consent to the experiment puts a stop to it in that location for good. the marathon meeting in the city council chambers eventually tackled the mcbp after midnight, but the late hour was no deterrent to a skeptical city council that ultimately found the lack of transparency and disrespect that the experiment’s proponents had shown for due process to be a sufficient red flag. this, argued the council members, warranted the city pulling the plug on the entire scheme. strong interventions from numerous organisations including the indigenous environment network, friends of the earth usa, biofuelwatch, the centre for international environmental law and ocean care also made sure that civil society voices counterbalanced those of the project’s backers. the mcbp was conducting the initial phase of an open ocean solar radiation modification (srm) experiment involving spraying a fine seawater mist from a decommissioned us aircraft carrier in order to create an aerosol. the theory is that this technique will brighten clouds and reflect more of the sun’s energy back into space, thereby helping to cool the climate. however, geoengineering experiments such as this one should be prohibited under a number of international agreements, which have put in place a de facto moratorium on this kind of research. in response to a proliferation of open ocean geoengineering experiments and commercial scale projects in recent years, last week over 70 civil society and indigenous peoples’ organisations signed a statement calling on decision makers world wide to put a stop to outdoor marine geoengineering experiments, and to develop strong precautionary regulatory controls over key geoengineering techniques such as marine cloud brightening (mcb). the hands off mother earth (home!) alliance and many of its members also appealed to the city of alameda directly, calling on it to shut down the mcbp’s experiments within their jurisdiction permanently. a letter from home! alliance member indigenous environmental network had a particularly significant impact on council members. it highlighted the project’s disregard for the climate justice fundamentals of inclusive and transparent decision making, and the clear failure of the project’s proponents to even attempt to respect the principles of free, prior and informed consent for indigenous peoples. whilst the experiment being conducted by the mcbp off the coast of california might seem harmless, these initial tests were the first step down a slippery slope to large scale deployment. deploying marine cloud brightening at scale would be a different matter entirely, and modelling results have predicted that this could have considerably varied and detrimental impacts in different parts of the world, including changes to weather and rainfall patterns with potentially calamitous ecological impacts on entire regions. also of concern is where the mcbp’s funding is coming from, and the agenda behind it. silverlining, a key funder of the mcbp, is known for promoting srm technologies and is backed by tech billionaires and venture capitalists. links between the mcbp and silverlining run deep, with silverlining ceo kelly wanser who was present at the council meeting last night a former mcbp executive director and still on the mcbp leadership team. one of silverlining’s main funders currently is the quadrature climate foundation, which the guardian revealed last year to be “run by billionaires whose fund has stakes worth $170m in fossil fuel firms.” the end of the mcbp’s experiment in california follows hot on the heels of the cancellation of the scopex research programme earlier this year, which aimed to test a different form of srm. both of these projects have been met with firm and effective opposition from civil society and indigenous peoples’ organisations, and this shows that the growing global movement against geoengineering research and its eventual large scale deployment is gaining serious momentum. alameda city council’s decision not only halts the mcbp, but also signals growing resistance to geoengineering projects globally.

the city council in alameda, calif., voted to stop tests of a device that could one day cool the earth. scientists and city staff had previously concluded the tests posed no risk. sign up for our newsletter to receive updates and relevant information coming soon! for inquiries email:coordinator@handsoffmotherearth.orgniki@handsoffmotherearth.org for media requests email:comms@handsoffmotherearth.org © 2024 home alliance. | web by whatnext? www.handsoffmotherearth.org

the city council in alameda, calif., voted to stop tests of a device that could one day cool the earth. scientists and city staff had previously concluded the tests posed no risk.
supported by the city council in alameda, calif., voted to stop tests of a device that could one day cool the earth. scientists and city staff had previously concluded the tests posed no risk. by soumya karlamangla and christopher flavelle soumya karlamangla reported from the council meeting in alameda, calif. christopher flavelle covered the start of the cloud brightening experiment in april. elected leaders in alameda, calif., voted early on wednesday to stop scientists from testing a device that might one day be used to artificially cool the planet, overruling city staff members who had found the experiment posed no danger. despite assurances from experts that the experiment was safe for humans and the environment, residents in the small city of 76,000 voiced the kinds of fears that swirl around the idea of intervening with natural systems to temporarily ease global warming. the test involved spraying tiny sea salt particles across the flight deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier, the u.s.s. hornet, docked in alameda in san francisco bay. versions of that device could eventually be used to spray the material skyward, making clouds brighter so that they reflect more sunlight away from earth. scientists say that could help to cool the planet and to fight the effects of global warming. as humans continue to burn fossil fuels and pump increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the goal of holding global warming to a relatively safe level, 1.5 degrees celsius compared with preindustrial times, is slipping away. that has pushed the idea of deliberately intervening in climate systems closer to reality. universities, foundations, private investors and the federal government have started to fund a variety of efforts, from sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to adding iron to the ocean in an effort to store carbon dioxide on the sea floor. the experiment in alameda did not involve brightening clouds; it was only testing the way sea salt particles emitted through a spraying device behave under different atmospheric conditions. it took researchers years to design and build the spraying device and the experiment was expected to last for months or even years at a cost of about $1 million a year.

 profile sections local tv featured more from nbc follow nbc news news alerts there are no new alerts at this time the city council of alameda, california, voted early wednesday to deny scientists permission to continue a controversial trial of technology that could one day be used to brighten clouds. the project, among the first of its kind, involved spraying saltwater on the deck of a former aircraft carrier moored at a city pier. the scientists behind it planned to test devices that can create and measure plumes of aerosols. long term, the research could have served as a step toward a type of climate intervention known as marine cloud brightening. the concept, still mostly theoretical, is to make clouds more reflective of sunlight, which would send more heat back into space and help mitigate global warming. no such efforts are underway yet   rather, scientists are designing experiments to investigate how the technology might work.