Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is investing in research technology that could — big emphasis on the “could” — potentially reverse global warming.
Using geoengineering technology, the Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx) will spray calcium dust into the atmosphere in order to reflect sunlight back into space.
According to the Daily Star, some experts are calling this project “dangerous” and even ‘horribly stupid.” However, it could be humanity’s best resort to save the world from the effects of climate change.
The SCoPEx project is scheduled to begin testing in June by launching a weather balloon 12 miles into the sky to determine whether or not the sun-blocking dust will be even have an impact.
However, some scientists have suggested the dust could help harm the Earth’s ozone layer, as nobody knows with certainty what will happen until after the dust is released. For starters, the Sun wouldn’t actually be blocked, but rather, the dust would reflect sunlight, similar to what happens when a volcano erupts.
If this all sounds like it could be a scene from a sci-fi thriller or whatever Don’t Look Up was, that’s because we’re entering very dystopian territory. The idea to block out the Sun has been brought up repeatedly in pop culture, from The Matrix to Snowpiercer. Even The Simpsons, which has a surprisingly great track-record for predicting what our future will look like, has an episode surrounding the town’s local billionaire Mr. Burns as he tries to block out the Sun. (Let’s just say, things did not go well for him.)
Humanity is facing a real crisis with taking care of an increasingly fragile environment. While only time will tell if Gates’ mad scientist theory will work, it’s up to us to care for our Earth while we still can.
