solar geo-engineering: warnings from scientists, indigenous peoples, youth, and climate activists
This spring scientists, Indigenous people and climate movements came together to stop the SCoPEx project's attempt to carry out a solar geoengineering experiment in Kiruna, Sweden.Next week, Michael Mann, Raymond Pierrehumbert, Jennie Stephens, Tom Goldtooth, Naomi Klein, Åsa Larson-Blind, Bill McKibben, Vandana Shiva and Greta Thunberg are coming together to drive home the warning: solar geoengineering is not a climate solution.We want you to join us for this livestream event on June 9 from 11am-1:30pm EDT 5pm-7:30pm CET
Catchy headlines about silver bullet fixes often downplay the real and profound risks that such technologies pose — including potentially devastating harm to ecosystems, increased droughts and extreme weather events, and the disruption of food production for millions of people around the world. These impacts would affect all of us, but would fall most heavily on Indigenous peoples and communities in the Global South. The illusion of a technological quick fix could also delay real climate solutions, putting both present and future generations at risk.
With billionaires funding projects, governments now actively subsidizing geoengineering research, and proponents pushing for real world experiments, this technology is no longer a distant and abstract risk. It is a pressing concern for communities, youth and climate movements around the world. One such project — the highly controversial SCoPEx solar geoengineering experiment — was scheduled to take place over Saami Indigenous territories.
Together, scientists, the Saami Indigenous people, Swedish and international climate movements were able to defeat the experiment. This same coalition is determined not to let any similar experiments happen on Indigenous land or anywhere else.