Ah, yes, those quaint days of the literal dark ages in the AD 540s, when Earth went dark and cold, causing crops, animals, and people to die for lack of sunlight. Is the Biden administration hoping for a return to those “good old days”? A recently released report from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) reveals the federal government is pursuing “geoengineering” to lower the Earth’s temperature with Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) and save us all from climate change.
Geoengineering, as the University of Oxford describes it, is “the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems to counteract climate change.” Essentially, our taxpayer dollars would fund research in “stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) and marine cloud brightening.” The report also mentions studies conducted on “cirrus cloud thinning.” Intervention in natural systems? Isn’t that how Godzilla was made?
But then there was this addendum:
“The report also acknowledges that research on solar radiation modification impacts to date has been ad hoc and fragmented, rather than being the product of a comprehensive strategy. As a result, substantial knowledge gaps and uncertainties exist in many critical areas.”
Do we really want to implement another “uncertainties” policy and continue to fund this research? The executive summary explains varied and unclear approaches: “This Research Plan does not consider space-based approaches to SRM (commonly, ‘mirrors in space’), nor local-scale measures to increase surface reflectance (e.g., ‘white roofs’).”
All the jabbering by the OSTP is simply a hodgepodge of radical ideas and horrific expenses with the desire to conduct further research. The summary continues: “There is a potential for adverse outcomes to ecosystems and the services they provide with the implementation of SRM, but the nature and intensity of these outcomes—in comparison to those in scenarios without SRM—remain unclear.” That should be a hard “no” on destroying the world’s delicate and necessary ecosystems that ultimately keep the planet alive now and in the future.
The Simpsons Have Weighed in Already
If the plot lines of Joe Biden’s policy group sound eerily familiar, it could be the similarity to the story of the 1995 episode of The Simpsons, titled, “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” According to Liberty Nation’s economic genius and cartoon aficionado, Andrew Moran: “Billionaire Montgomery Burns, who owns the power plant, devises a giant sun-blocking device to make Springfield use more lights and power, making his plant even more money. ‘I call this enemy… the sun,’ he tells his assistant, Smithers.”
Is this where the Biden administration is getting its climate change ideas? With suggestions like blocking out the sun, one has to wonder. Even America’s most widely syndicated columnist, Cal Thomas, who may or may not watch the show, wrote: “If this [sun blocking] comes true, we might have to take many more Vitamin D pills. The suntan lotion industry will likely go bankrupt.” Coppertone will be on the ropes, and everyone will have the blues, so to speak, without pharmaceutical assistance.
Climate Change History
In either AD 539 or 540, several natural events created a climate change nightmare. Keep in mind, folks, we weren’t driving around burning fossil fuels, and there weren’t eight billion people roaming about. Eruptions from massive volcanoes “killed tens of thousands and helped trigger one of the worst periods of global cooling in the last 2,000 years.” Ilopango, the now dormant – thank goodness – volcano in El Salvador, and an earlier eruption from 537 in either Alaska or Iceland were the culprits.
Per National Geographic: “The two volcanoes were so large and so violent; they launched sulfur gases and particles miles into the sky. Since this material reflected sunlight away from Earth’s surface, it triggered severe global cooling: Crops in northern Europe and elsewhere failed, likely triggering starvation and disease.” The blockage lasted for 18 months. There may have even been another massive volcanic eruption in 536, as a mysterious fog was said to have rolled over most of the known world that year, blocking out the sun so that, as Roman politician Cassiodorus put it, “we marvel to see no shadows of our bodies at noon.”
(Photo by Patricio Realpe/LatinContent via Getty Images)
A similar situation occurred over a thousand years later. Indonesia’s Mount Tambora decided to cool off Europe for a year or so, erupting on April 5, 1815. “Snow fell in New England. Gloomy, cold rains fell throughout Europe. It was cold and stormy and dark,” reads the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research article about the natural disaster. The year 1816 went on to be known by such monikers as “Year Without Summer,” “Poverty Year,” and “Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death.”
Are we going to monkey around and try blocking the sun? What could possibly go wrong?
It comes down to this: The report was congressionally mandated so progressives could believe the administration and Congress were pursuing a plan to save the planet. It’s Bupkis. A bunch of “what ifs” with sci-fi ideas and theories they have little ability to implement. As the report assures, it only “identifies critical knowledge gaps and scopes potential research.” Furthermore, “there are no plans underway to establish a comprehensive research program focused on solar radiation modification.”
We’ve geoengineered ourselves silly as it is, so perhaps this is much ado about nothing. But Andrew Moran has the last word, asking the Biden regime: “Will the government then call off all climate-related taxes and spending programs,” following the big umbrella install? And did you hear that gasp emanating from the Swamp?
