A botched geoengineering experiment to limit the amount of sunlight hitting Earth hasn’t dimmed donors’ enthusiasm for funding the research
Donors are still interested in funding research into geoengineering experiments that would inject particles into the atmosphere in an attempt to cool the climate.Wealthy philanthropists with ties to Wall Street and Silicon Valley are unbowed by a botched climate experiment to limit the amount of sunlight hitting the earth, vowing to continue bankrolling future solar geoengineering tests as temperatures catapult upward.
The funders' comments came after two high-profile experiments were shutdown following public backlash, pointing to the challenges of conducting controversial research that could result in weather disruptions or other unintended consequences. The latest experiment was derailed earlier this month when local officials in Alameda, California,
The foundation — started in 1994 by former hedge fund manager Jim Simons and his wife, Marilyn Simons — has long supported a wide variety of University of Washington research. Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, praised the university and SilverLining, a nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to advance geoengineering research, foratop the USS Hornet. The World War II-era ship is now a Smithsonian-affiliated museum.
SilverLining and SRI International, another nonprofit that helped guide the Alameda experiment, did not respond to requests for comment. But SilverLining Executive Director Kelly Wanser said in May that her group provided about 10 percent of the funding for the Alameda project.
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