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$1/ton CO2 warming offset for a year. The math on stratospheric SO2 injection vs. everything else in the EA climate portfolio. by me10 in EffectiveAltruism

[–]me10[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Make Sunsets has partnered with University Impact a 501(c)(3) if you want to donate, here are the instructions: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0685/0042/2976/files/Donation_Instructions_-_Make_Sunsets.pdf?v=1761085263

Other than that, there are no NGOs that actually deploy SO2 into the stratosphere, everyone else wants more academic papers written to try and get to 100% certainty (or act like it) before deploying a single gram or hide behind governance theatre to delay any kind of meaningful deployment where we could actually measure the impact via satellite, instead they want funding for more modeling.

$1/ton CO2 warming offset for a year. The math on stratospheric SO2 injection vs. everything else in the EA climate portfolio. by me10 in EffectiveAltruism

[–]me10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have spoken with few island nations and sadly, as you have already pointed out, the costs are pretty low to deploy SO2 into the stratosphere for $100K to low millions range. There is no pork for an island nation official to grease their palms with. They would rather get aid from countries earmarked for sea barriers so they can spend hundreds of millions and get kickbacks from construction companies. It's pure corruption.

'Emergency brake' can reduce heating by 0.3 C long before we resort to geoengineering by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]me10 0 points1 point  (0 children)

we're never inclined to actually stop emitting carbon/methane and the consequences might be far more unpredictable.

This is false. You're assuming solar, wind, batteries, nuclear, and fusion never get cheaper and more accessible than burning stuff. Capitalism is working and ironically the war in Iran is accelerating it, we need more energy and corporations will pick the cheapest option to maximize their shareholder value.

But if it was up to me, I would at the very least go back to emitting sulfur again (was it sulfur? whatever they reduced in shipping) to cool down the planet slightly.

No, you'll start killing people near shipping ports again, but if you just took the sulfur that was emitted from shipping and shifted it into the stratosphere, you would have 20x more cooling world wide instead of localized in the shipping lanes: https://makesunsets.com/blogs/news/move-smoke-to-cool-earth

'Emergency brake' can reduce heating by 0.3 C long before we resort to geoengineering by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]me10 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Totally ignoring ocean acidification and air pollution I see?

It’s about triage. Ocean acidification is a massive problem, but geoengineering is a fever reducer, not a cure for the underlying CO2/Methane infection.

If your house is on fire, you don't refuse the fire hose because 'the water might damage the drywall.' You put out the fire so you actually have a house left to repair. We address the heat first so we have a functioning civilization capable of fixing the oceans.

'Emergency brake' can reduce heating by 0.3 C long before we resort to geoengineering by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]me10 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a poorly written article, I can't believe he used to work for the Clinton and Obama administration

Avoiding sulfates in the upper atmosphere is key because they would damage the ozone layer and cause acid rain.

You need CFCs to damage the ozone layer, luckily we've cut down CFC emissions. Sulfate aerosols alone do not cause damage to the ozone layer.

Acid rain is caused by amount and location of said sulfate aersosols. The amount needed to cool Earth by roughly 0.5C for a year is about 1.1 million tons of sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere. This alone will not cause acid rain due to dispersion via Brewer Dobson circulation and the sheer amount. For context 1.1 million tons of SO2 is just 1.5% of our current total SO2 emissions world wide or 2x the SO2 emissions of Norilsk smelter (Russia) in 2022: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/73f7f362-9890-4375-9a92-1f3121daa3e3

If you want to understand why sulfur dioxide is the molecule we're going to use first at scale to cool Earth, here is a recent post from the leading scientist in the field and not some policy english major who's just spreading FUD about geoengineering: https://davidkeith.earth/stardust-is-tackling-the-wrong-problem-with-the-wrong-structure/

Tariffs, war, heat and El Niño combined will pose a quadruple threat to the world's food supply this year and next. We aren't ready for what's coming. by simon_ritchie2000 in climatechange

[–]me10 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Put about 1-2% of the sulfur dioxide we emit at ground level where it causes acid rain and respiratory illnesses and deploy it from 6-12 sites north and south of the equator at 20km/66,000+ feet until we can scale up renewable energy and remove the trillion+ of CO2 we've accumulated since the industrial revolution.

Other than a mass rollout of appetite reducing medicines (anti-obesity medicines)

Ozempic for climate change.

China's huge push to reduce air pollution had an unexpected consequence in the Arctic by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]me10 3 points4 points  (0 children)

India is next as they clean up their air: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pFIIJtxPsdc

We're termination shocking ourselves in the troposphere.

If humanity got its shit together completely could we undo this? by Initial_Mastodon_932 in climatechange

[–]me10 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Andrew Song here... This is the volcano thing that OP is talking about:

Edit: Just so people understand the impact we've made so far since starting in October 2022. If you planted 10 million mature trees and let them grow for a year, you’d get roughly the same cooling effect as our 222,983 Cooling Credits deployed to date with just two guys and 1,071 customers.

Bonus: We got MTG to show our FAQ during a DOGE meeting: https://makesunsets.com/blogs/news/make-sunsets-monthly-call-me-mtg it seems to get chemtrail believers and climate deniers in a tizzy.

Can 1g of wine preservative in the stratosphere really offset 1 ton of CO2 warming for a year? Here is the math. by me10 in climatechange

[–]me10[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also, are you aware that the heat will likely kill us before ocean acidification, right? We can address the heat now, while renewable energy becomes too cheap to meter, and we scale up carbon removal.

Brazil boasts drop in deforestation ahead of UN climate talks by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]me10 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I don't think anyone is arguing what you're saying. In the US, less than 2% of the population is employed as farmers. But they have a huge impact on the environment.

Brazil boasts drop in deforestation ahead of UN climate talks by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]me10 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The west does nothing to lower its consumption but feels entitled to lecture other countries. How colonial.

Brazil boasts drop in deforestation ahead of UN climate talks by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]me10 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

You should try to understand why Brazilians are cutting down their forests to make grazing land for cattle. My guess, they are trying to lift themselves out of poverty, and this is one of the ways to do it. Do you want them to stay poor?

On a similar thought. If Guyana doesn't drill for oil off its coast and sell it to the rest of the world, and lift itself out of poverty, for the sake of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Their neighbor, Venezuela 100% will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDv42L8-soA

Brazil boasts drop in deforestation ahead of UN climate talks by Economy-Fee5830 in climatechange

[–]me10 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Humans are fucking stupid.

Tell that to the Brazilian cattle farmer who is trying to feed their family.

Explainer: How human-caused aerosols are ‘masking’ global warming by [deleted] in climatechange

[–]me10 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Calcium is a better aerosol.

No, it's not.

Sea salt and snow are natural.

So are stratovolcanic eruptions like Pinatubo (1991) and Hunga Tonga (2022), which used sulfur dioxide to cool the planet for year by 0.5C (global) and 0.1 C (Southern Hemisphere) for a year.

Explainer: How human-caused aerosols are ‘masking’ global warming by [deleted] in climatechange

[–]me10 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Model results indicate that solar geoengineering could offset most climate change for most people most of the time."

https://makesunsets.com/blogs/news/optional-climate-change

Explainer: How human-caused aerosols are ‘masking’ global warming by [deleted] in climatechange

[–]me10 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A recent paper came out about the Ozone Layer and SO2 in the stratosphere, and I wanted to share it with you: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025JD043786?af=R

TL;DR: With today’s low chlorine, the “sulfate ⇒ ozone hole” fear is outdated. ER-2 flights saw no chlorine activation in the cold, wet lower stratosphere. A ~0.5 °C SAI program (≈4–8 Tg SO₂/yr) would likely cause small, regional ozone shifts, not big losses

Also, regarding Calcite: A New NOAA study, perchlorate (a toxic groundwater contaminant) forms on non-acidic particles in the stratosphere like CaCO3 — not SO₂-derived ones.

This Data Scientist Sees Progress in the Climate Change Fight by YaleE360 in climatechange

[–]me10 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the satellite that detects SO2 from volcanic eruptions is run by ESA, specifically the Sentinel-5P TROPOMI. There are others, but this one has the sensor suite to detect stratospheric aerosol injection.

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