The penis jokes noted in the article fit right in with the general picture.....
On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 5:05 PM Andrew Lockley <[email protected]> wrote: > Poster's note: this is probably the most astonishing thing I've read in ~a > decade in geoengineering. I'm no expert in the law on US hazardous > materials manufacturing, but I'm guessing you're probably not allowed to > set up meth-lab style toxic gas manufacturing facilities in hotel bedrooms. > Can anyone clarify this? (I've bcc a lawyer or two) It also begs the > question of what remedy is available to enforce whatever statute may exist > to dissuade firms from such hotel room operations. I'm also curious as to > whether the firms investors and sponsors are aware that this is how they go > about their operations? Apologies if this comes across as editorialising, > but I'm not sure the normal rules of discourse apply here. At some point > you just have to hit the alarm button (and doing so in that hotel would > probably have been justified). > > > > https://time.com/6257102/geoengineering-make-sunsets-us-balloon-launch-exclusive/ > > > > CLIMATE ADAPTATIONEXCLUSIVE: INSIDE A CONTROVERSIAL STARTUP'S RISKY > ATTEMPT TO CONTROL OUR CLIMATE > Exclusive: Inside a Controversial Startup's Risky Attempt to Control Our > Climate > BY ALEJANDRO DE LA GARZA | PHOTOGRAPHS BY BALAZS GARDI FOR TIME | > FEBRUARY 21, 2023 2:53 PM EST > Founder Luke Iseman and co-founder Andrew Song of solar geoengineering > startup Make Sunsets hold a weather balloon filled with helium, air, and > sulfur dioxide at a park in Reno, Nevada on February 12, 2023. (Balazs > Gardi for TIME) > Founder Luke Iseman and co-founder Andrew Song of solar geoengineering > startup Make Sunsets hold a weather balloon filled with helium, air, and > sulfur dioxide at a park in Reno, Nevada on February 12, 2023. Balazs Gardi > for TIME > Luke Iseman, an innovator, renegade, or charlatan, depending on who you > ask, but certainly the biggest climate tech trouble-maker in recent memory, > is sitting cross legged on the floor of a Nevada hotel room, mohawk bent > over a laptop, speaking on the phone with the Federal Aviation > Administration (FAA). It’s the morning of Feb. 12, and Iseman says he’s in > the last phase of dotting his i’s and crossing his t’s, legally speaking, > before he releases three large weather balloons containing chemicals > intended to reflect the sun’s rays back into space, the first test of the > controversial climate technology in the U.S. > > Such administrative preparations don’t come naturally to Iseman, 39, but > things have been delicate lately. His first such balloon flights, launched > from his home in Baja California, put the Mexican government in conniptions > when they came to light last December—he hadn’t consulted the > authorities—and resulted in officials pledging to ban any such > geoengineering efforts in the country. There’s also the recent American > touchiness around unidentified balloons: a ‘missiles first, questions > later’ policy. And then there’s the voicemail Iseman received from the FBI > Directorate on Weapons of Mass Destruction two days prior. > > A Brutal Winter Storm Is Disrupting Travel Across the Country. Here's What > to Know > > POSTED 1 HOUR AGO > Watch More > > For now, the FAA call goes off without a hitch—they don’t ask him what the > balloons are for, and Iseman doesn’t tell them. “This is going to go > fucking smoothly, maybe,” he says after he hangs up. “Or everyone’s gonna > say ‘Yeah, you should be fine,’ and then we launch and a fucking jet comes > and shoots it down.” > > Luke Iseman experiments with creating sulfur dioxide in a hotel room. > (Balazs Gardi for TIME) > Luke Iseman experiments with creating sulfur dioxide in a hotel room. > Balazs Gardi for TIME > Next is what Andrew Song, 37, Iseman’s mustachioed, beanied business > partner, insists on calling “the cook”—as in, “We have to cook,” from meth > drama Breaking Bad. The hotel room is cluttered with hardware that Iseman > and Song have recently purchased from Home Depot: plastic tubing, pressure > cooker, a cooler filled with dry ice, and assorted one-pound jugs of > sulfur-based fungicide. There’s a towel under the door, and the window is > open. Song hands me an industrial respirator when I walk in. “You’re gonna > need this,” he says solemnly. > > Iseman and Song intend to put a few grams of sulfur dioxide (SO2) into > their helium weather balloons. In the upper atmosphere, SO2—a chemical > found in airplane exhaust and ejected by volcanoes—bounces solar radiation > back into space, part of the reason global temperatures can drop in the > aftermath of some volcanic eruptions. Iseman and Song haven’t yet arranged > for a chemicals company to supply them with SO2, so they are making it > themselves. And today they’re trying out a new technique in the hotel > room—a scaled-up version of something they had seen on YouTube—burning the > sulfur-based fungicide, then sucking the resultant gas through tubing > cooled with dry ice in order to precipitate liquid SO2 into the pressure > cooker. > > SO2 gas isn’t pleasant stuff. It forms sulfuric acid when it comes into > contact with water, as it does in the eyes and the mucous membranes of the > lungs. In sufficient concentrations, it’ll kill you. Earlier, Song had > proposed burning popcorn in the hotel room to “mask the SO2 smell,” but the > pair didn’t implement the idea. Iseman sits on the floor fitting tubing > together with silicone tape. Song helps when Iseman asks, but otherwise > stands around. He says they’re doing this indoors because the setup > “doesn’t look great,” and because wind might blow away their sulfur smoke. > There’s no risk of toxic exposure, though, he says—the acidity of the > chemical is akin to orange juice, he claims. Iseman laughingly rejects the > comparison. Song pushes on with another questionable analogy: “If you’ve > ever done a massive bong hit, it’s less—a bong hit is worse than what > you’re going to inhale, in terms of the pain.” > > Eventually, Iseman finishes fiddling with his filtration contraption. He > dons a respirator. > > “Are these the acid filter ones?” he asks Song, his voice muffled. > > “Yup.” > > “Baller.” > > Then he measures fungicide into a tin can, lights it on fire, and starts a > vacuum to try to suck up the gas. My eyes burn as SO2 fills the room. > Iseman becomes excited, pointing out to Song some clear droplets that have > collected at the bottom of the pressure cooker. But as Song leans over, he > knocks over a piece of Iseman’s setup. > > “Dude, never mind,” Iseman snaps. > > Then he returns his attention to the pressure cooker. “Fuck yes,” he says. > “I can’t believe this is working.” > > Luke Iseman and Andrew Song use a grill to burn sulfur powder and capture > the smoke in a plastic bag. (Balazs Gardi for TIME) > Luke Iseman and Andrew Song use a grill to burn sulfur powder and capture > the smoke in a plastic bag. Balazs Gardi for TIME > The notion of spraying chemicals in the atmosphere, known as stratospheric > aerosol injection (SAI), is an old, controversial idea in climate science. > For decades, a consensus held that it wasn’t worth looking into the idea > seriously because the potential side effects—acid rain, damage to the ozone > layer, changes to weather patterns that could cause agricultural harm—could > be as bad as the problem it was meant to solve. There’s also the > possibility that such research could create a moral hazard, enabling > polluting nations and companies to claim that they didn’t really need to > cut emissions, because we could just dose the sky with billions of tons of > sulfur dioxide. Many experts maintain that position. But as the atmospheric > situation has worsened in recent years, and the likelihood of the world > making drastic emissions cuts in time to avert the worst effects of global > warming becomes increasingly remote, some scientists have begun > rehabilitating the idea of at least more thoroughly scrutinizing the > potential costs and benefits. The White House is getting ready to release a > five-year research plan to study the potential of different kinds of > atmospheric geoengineering, including SAI, while the U.S. National Oceanic > and Atmospheric Administration has been studying existing reflective > particles in the stratosphere since 2020. > > The idea of actually conducting real-world SAI tests, however, is still > highly contentious. A small-scale test study by Harvard scientists in > Scandinavia, for instance, was canceled in 2021 following outcry from > environmentalists and local Indigenous groups. Then, late last year, Iseman > and his innocuously-named startup Make Sunsets came along. With next to no > background in atmospheric science, he had raised $750,000 from venture > capital firms to commercialize SAI technology, and launched a website > offering customers a chance to buy “cooling credits” for $10. In exchange > for each credit, Iseman and Song pledged to inject one gram of SO2 into the > upper atmosphere, which they say is equivalent to canceling out one ton of > CO2 emissions for one year (CO2 hangs around in the atmosphere 1,000 times > longer than SO2, so fully offsetting that same ton of CO2 would require > pumping more SO2 into the sky year after year). For now, they’re using > balloons and working with essentially imperceptible amounts of SO2 (a > single jet airline flight, for instance, emits hundreds of times more SO2). > Once they get more funding—around $20-$40 million dollars, Iseman says—they > can start launching SO2 from specially equipped planes, and hope to > demonstrate a small cooling effect on the world’s atmosphere. “I was like, > ‘I think I’m missing something. It can’t be this easy,’” Iseman says. > “Turns out it is.” > > The reaction among geoscientists and climate experts has been a mixture of > incredulity, mirth, and outrage. “This is one of the most egregious efforts > to mislead people,” says Duncan McLaren, an environmental law and policy > researcher at UCLA Law School. Experts tend to agree that the effects of > SAI technology are poorly understood, and that the technology isn’t even > close to being ready for commercialization—if such a thing could ever be > countenanced at all. “Skeptics of solar geoengineering experimentation as > well as proponents are rarely unified,” says Kevin Surprise, a lecturer on > environmental studies at Mount Holyoke College. “I have not seen a single > person in the field say this is a good idea.” Many are skeptical whether > Iseman’s project is even doing what he claims, as his initial balloon > launches didn’t have equipment to confirm that the SO2 particles were > deposited in the upper atmosphere. > > The payload of a Make Sunsets weather balloon. (Balazs Gardi for TIME) > The payload of a Make Sunsets weather balloon. Balazs Gardi for TIME > Song says they expected a negative reaction from the scientific community, > and that it’s up to operators like him and Iseman to come into the > geoengineering field and make things happen, even if they end up making a > lot of mistakes. “It’s the nerds versus the jocks, maybe that’s an easy way > to put it,” Song says. “I’m the jock.” Since the project came to public > attention in late December, Song says he’s sold about 1,200 cooling credits > to online customers. He came up with one of his most promising marketing > ideas, “sunscreen for the Earth,” by asking OpenAI’s ChatGPT how he might > explain geoengineering to a five-year-old. > > “Stratospheric aerosol injection, that’s a fucking sketchy-sounding term, > right?” he says. “No, it’s just sunscreen. Everyone understands what > sunscreen is.” > > A Sulfur Barbecue > At the hotel, it turns out that Iseman’s celebrations were > premature—plenty of SO2 had filled the room and blown out the window, but > not much had collected as a liquid in the pressure cooker. He and Song > retreat to a different room to escape the corrosive gas and assemble their > ballooning equipment. Towards afternoon, they pile into Song’s Winnebago > and—after a stop at a local Walmart to pick up a charcoal grill—make their > way to San Rafael Regional Park on the edge of the city. There, in a > parking lot surrounded by dry grassy foothills and housing developments, > it’s back to a tried and true method of making SO2 Iseman used in Mexico: > dumping sulfur fungicide into the grill and lighting it on fire, then > vacuuming the gas into garbage bags through the grill’s vent. Neither > Iseman nor Song wear respirators this time. Families with children come and > go as SO2 drifts across the parking lot. Song starts coughing. > > “You ok?” says Iseman. > > “Yeah, I got some sulfur though,” Song says. Later on, attempting to > squeeze fungicide smoke from a garbage bag into a biodegradable latex > balloon through a vacuum cleaner hose, Song takes another load of SO2 to > the face. He starts hacking again. > > “Let’s not hurt ourselves,” Iseman says, sounding frustrated. > > Iseman’s affect can change quickly. He’s muscular and energetic, bounding > around the parking lot with an unruly grin. He laughs when Song makes a > penis joke, and seems to relish in the slapdash aspects of their venture. > “So fucking amateur,” he says, almost with delight, as he attempts to copy > a knot for the balloon’s parachute from his phone screen. But he also > frequently becomes impatient with Song, castigating him for rushing or > carelessness as they assemble the balloons. As the sun goes down and the > temperature drops toward freezing, Song, wearing an impractical topcoat, > says he’s getting cold. “Aww,” Iseman says with mock sympathy. “Do you want > an office job?” > > Luke Iseman works inside Song's RV. Balazs Gardi for TIME > Co-founder Andrew Song holds a weather balloon filled with helium, air and > sulfur dioxide. Balazs Gardi for TIME > The pair lug a tank of helium into a field of brown grass and get ready to > launch the first balloon—one of their first with equipment that can collect > basic data like how high it traveled. They had weighed the balloons before > and after adding the fungicide smoke—the difference, they say, is the > amount of SO2 they pumped in—and now they add helium to provide lift. Such > balloons expand as they climb before eventually bursting, and operators > tend to carefully measure the helium they use in order to be sure their > balloons reach the correct altitude. Iseman and Song appear to guestimate > it. They later say the balloons contained about 10 grams of SO2 each, but > they aren’t counting the flights toward fulfilling the cooling credits > they’ve sold, since they couldn’t confirm they reached the correct > altitude, and they don’t believe their SO2 measurements were accurate > enough. > > The first balloon inflates into a pale 9 ft. globe and strains upward over > Iseman’s head. When he releases it, a string pulls tight and snatches his > measurement equipment into the sky. Within a few seconds, the balloon > shrinks to a tiny dot. Then it’s gone. The next balloon flies without > trouble as well. As it’s getting dark, Iseman decides to launch one more > balloon, this one without any kind of tracking hardware. Asked why, he > responds, “Because I want to, basically.” > > “So there’s no chance of recovering this balloon?” I ask. > > “Nope,” Iseman says. “Goes up, explodes, biodegrades, saves the world.” > > More from TIME > Fallout > The FBI worries turn out to be overblown—Iseman’s lawyer speaks with the > agent the following morning, and apparently he only needed to be assured > that Make Sunsets has nothing to do with a certain unidentified balloon > they had found a few weeks earlier. But a new crisis has emerged. > SilverLining, a pro-geoengineering environmental group, has gotten wind of > Make Sunsets’ latest balloon flights, and put out a press release calling > their cooling credits a “snake oil sales pitch” and asking U.S. authorities > to stop them. Iseman is incensed. “I don’t understand,” he says as we drive > west out of Reno on our way to retrieve the two balloons with tracking > equipment. “They’re supposed to be advocating for this field.” > > Chaos tends to follow Iseman. “He loves to create drama, or maybe like > anarchy,” says his best friend Craig Cannon. There was, for instance, a > memorable trip in which Iseman piled solar panels on a decrepit 20-year-old > trailer and towed them across the U.S. southern border to set up an > off-grid homestead, resulting in multiple stops by Mexican authorities. > Iseman, who is an American, spends some of his time in London living on a > houseboat, which doesn’t have a toilet, so Iseman buries the waste in > public parks. For his birthdays, he invites friends to a yearly “vitality > challenge,” a half marathon race with a beer for every mile. “It ends > horribly,” Cannon says. > > Thanks to an executive role at influential startup accelerator YCombinator > from 2015 to 2016, Iseman has been blessed with occasional five-figure > checks when companies he worked with get bought, and street cred in the > world of venture capital. But he’s almost pathologically averse to the > comfort and material excess that drive most people in the tech world. In > his last VC-funded enterprise, Boxouse, he and a then-girlfriend intended > to address the scourge of high Bay Area rents by creating communities of > shipping container micro homes. They moved into one themselves, on an > Oakland lot. “It takes some advocacy for people to realize that working 10 > to 20 hours a week and having way less bills can be preferable to working > 90 hours a week to live in a crappy place you don’t even like,” he said in > a video recorded at the time. > > Launched by solar geoengineering startup Make Sunsets, a weather balloon > filled with helium, air and sulfur dioxide takes off at a park in Reno, > Nevada. (Balazs Gardi for TIME) > Launched by solar geoengineering startup Make Sunsets, a weather balloon > filled with helium, air and sulfur dioxide takes off at a park in Reno, > Nevada. Balazs Gardi for TIME > The ethos, though, has sometimes left others paying for Iseman’s choices. > In city emails that Iseman obtained and posted to the site of the defunct > Boxouse project, neighbors around his unpermitted container community > complained about late-night work noise that kept them awake, as well as a > health hazard from occupants composting human waste on the site. “He drove > us crazy,” says one neighbor, who asked not to be identified because she > has health issues. “You look at how filthy and nasty his shipping > containers were. He could have helped people, but he didn’t go about it the > right way.” Ultimately, the city forced Iseman to vacate the property. > > Boxouse was ostensibly a business, but it was perhaps also something of a > stunt, or, more charitably, a demonstration of something Iseman believes > in: that it’s possible to let go of the absurd, wasteful, environmentally > destructive homes in which Americans live. Make Sunsets operates along > similar lines—part business venture, part protest, intended either to spur > the market for geoengineering along, or to force governments and > international bodies to confront the issue themselves, or both. “I’d be > super happy to end up arrested for short periods, have my company fail, and > go personally bankrupt,” Iseman says. “If I could snap my fingers and spend > a week in jail and give up all my money, and we have international > consensus that properly geoengineers our world, great.” > > But as with Boxouse, there are bystanders to Iseman’s geoengineering > project who may stand in the way of his aims. In the press release > announcing Mexico’s plan to ban Make Sunsets’ work, the government > excoriated the Americans for failing to communicate with local communities > about what they were going to do in the skies over their homes. Iseman and > Song issued a contrite response on their blog. “We appreciate their concern > for national and local engagement and regret that we had failed to take > this into consideration sooner,” they wrote. Yet they made no apparent > effort to talk to Nevadans prior to their U.S. launch, or even to warn > people walking by their sulfur barbeque in the Reno-area park. (Iseman says > that such engagement wasn’t necessary because he was working in a > relatively unpopulated area, and because he wasn’t testing his balloons in > a foreign country this time.) > > To some extent, Iseman delights in the controversy his project has stirred > up. He sees it as a way to garner attention for his views: that the > “responsible adults” don’t have the climate situation under control, and > that we urgently need to start geoengineering the atmosphere to avert > deaths and irreversible ecological damage. He thinks there hasn’t been > enough radical direct action on climate, that people need to start taking > things into their own hands. “That I’m one of the scarier guys is pretty > pathetic for the state of the world,” Iseman says. “If this is the > terrifying extreme, then we’re fucked.” > > Driving through the Sierra Nevada mountains, Iseman’s phone rings—it’s the > Nevada governor’s office. The SilverLining press release has set off a > flood of calls to state authorities, including rumors that hundreds of > geoengineering balloons were being released in Nevada. Iseman explains what > he had done, seeming to mollify the official. “We want enthusiastic launch > partners,” Iseman tells him. “We want to work with places that want us > there, and then we want to do it as responsibly as possible.” > > Then, as he hangs up the phone, he laughs. The hoopla he’s stirred up > seems to have already exceeded his expectations. “Is this not fucking > absurd?” he says. “It almost makes it seem like I know what I’m doing. Just > the amount of bang for buck from launching a couple fucking balloons.” > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "geoengineering" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/CAJ3C-076B%2BgyftFWh7MjpYF4bytiwKJiJ8ccAp%2Bur4S9nVmaxw%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/geoengineering/CAJ3C-076B%2BgyftFWh7MjpYF4bytiwKJiJ8ccAp%2Bur4S9nVmaxw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. 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