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US-Israeli startup plan to block sun with airborne chemicals

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/10/25/geoengineering-us-israeli-startup-plan/

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/4087

A US-Israeli geoengineering startup has raised $60m as part of its plan to test ‘sun-reflecting technology’. Critics are warning the new tech could have unexpected negative impacts on global weather and drive “geopolitical conflict”. Supporters, meanwhile, have pointed out it might not do that. 🚨Big News in Solar Geoengineering Stardust Solutions, an Israeli-U.S. startup developing […]

By Willem Moore

If you’re unfamiliar with solar ‘geoengineering’, it’s essentially climate change in reverse. Much like how we’ve caused global warming and other changes by releasing carbon, methane, and other gases, scientists believe we can reverse the problem by releasing particles which reflect sunlight back into space.

In a report titled The Risks of Geoengineering, the Center for International Environmental Law summarised:

   Geoengineering technologies, if deployed at scale, could have profound, unpredictable, and potentially irreversible effects on biodiversity, both through their direct impacts and as a result of compounding and exacerbating existing planetary crises caused by pollution, climate change, and unsustainable land use.

As reported by Politico, this latest geoengineering plan is being led by US-Israeli startup Stardust Solutions. Their technology involves custom particles which the company claims are ‘inert’. They also believe these particles will not accumulate in humans or ecosystems, will not harm the ozone layer, and will not create acid rain.

Stardust Solutions’ founders are nuclear physicists who worked for the Israeli government. Although they insist their new project is unaffiliated with the state of Israel, they are headquartered outside Tel Aviv. This could cause problems for them worldwide given the boycott of Israel which began during Israel’s apartheid era and continued throughout the genocide.

From Canary via This RSS Feed.

Rom [he/him] - 2mon

They will literally block out the fucking sun before they ever confront capital.

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Owl [he/him] - 2mon

Their technology involves custom particles which the company claims are ‘inert’

It's gonna be microplastics.

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segfault11 [she/her, any] - 2mon

it's hitler particles

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Meltyheartlove [love/loves, comrade/them] - 2mon

AI particles that join together to form a block chain

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insurgentrat [she/her, it/its] - 2mon

The neat thing about geoengineering is if you ever stop injecting this shit into the atmosphere you get decades of warming in a few years.

Can't see any issues with an approach that discourages restricting emissions and makes the consequences way worse.

Also does nothing about ocean acidification.

The day someone blocks out the fucking stars is the day I change my stance on adventurism.

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GalaxyBrain [they/them] - 2mon

The fact that its even being considered absolutely demands that those who are attempting it fucking die. Beyond the pale doesnt describe the degree of absolute malevolence and hubris.

I WILL GO FULL anprim-pat IF THESE PRICKS FUCK WITH ANIMALS THIS MUCH.

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Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided] - 2mon

that's sort of a backward upside of it. the island nations who are most affected by warming and sea level rise could cobble together a few million dollars to unilaterally start doing it and then everyone else has a gun to their heads to keep it going.

better for the "west" to have communist revolutions of course but we aren't building those fast enough either.

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insurgentrat [she/her, it/its] - 2mon

it's not a great idea for them. It's expensive without high altitude missiles and launch facilities, white skies sort of ruin the tourism aspect of their beaches, cooler oceans absorb co2 more quickly which will harm reefs and other life hotspots reducing fishing and other maritime industries.

Changes in rainfall patterns and ocean currents that are hard to predict is also not a great idea when you're a small island that can't buffer that or has the industrial base to support mass desalination and shit.

Also if you have smol military anyone who doesn't like you doing it will invade or blockade to stop you unless you have powerful backing. In which case, powerful backer is really the one doing it but with colonialism.

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Le_Wokisme [they/them, undecided] - 2mon

the thing is that's pretty cheap, speaking on the scale of nation-states. you can probably pay musk to do it, for example.

it's not a good plan but i could see people with a few million dollars and their backs to the wall going for it out of desperation

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insurgentrat [she/her, it/its] - 2mon

You can't pay musk to do it without the consent of a nation state with launch facilities where the rockets are located and the military permits the use of the airspace.

Nation states jealously guard the ability to launch rockets.

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Euergetes [none/use name] - 2mon

are rockets actually necessary to disperse these aerosols?

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insurgentrat [she/her, it/its] - 2mon

yes

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Euergetes [none/use name] - 2mon

has something changed from when they were proposing this on trans-pacific freighters?

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SkingradGuard [he/him, comrade/them] - 2mon

You could probably do it with balloons but I assume payload is limited

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Euergetes [none/use name] - 2mon

there were proposals to disperse these from cargo ships a couple years ago

but yeah, a hot air balloon is extremely cheap and could do that shit easily

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Euergetes [none/use name] - 2mon

unilaterally start doing it and then everyone else has a gun to their heads to keep it going.

everyone else is going to start shooting at these nations. when responsibility is spread to the self-interest of the nations everyone will be encouraged to maximalize aerosols that don't blow over their own territory, and everyone subject to these crop-failure clouds will retaliate.

the only semi-rational, last resort way to do this would be with strict international control and scope but every compounding failure of global climate policy has set the stage for profound violence

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KuroXppi [they/them] - 2mon

I vaguely remember someone here saying this is a plotline in a novel, whereby India launched the first missiles and there was an eco errorist (?) group called the children of kali, or something

I'll try to dig it up if the search function blesses me

Edit: multiple people. The book is called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_for_the_Future

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Dort_Owl [they/them, any] - 2mon

Even the most layman scientist could tell you why this is a stupid and dangerous as fuck idea

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Euergetes [none/use name] - 2mon

but you see capital has tried nothing and they're out of ideas

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GalaxyBrain [they/them] - 2mon

I have found the degree of scientific ignorance/believing strongly in absolute scifi nonsense is pretty astounding. Just this week at work my boss said that one of the moons of Jupiter doesnt reflect any light, another co-worker didnt know what carbon was when me and another co-worker (with a geology degree but he's still kinda bad at non geology stuff) we're explaining what combustion is when out pasta pot boiled dry and she asked why the salt in the water didnt burn. I guarantee most people think string theory is real and that Dyson spheres are practical. Fucking everyone somehow seems to think Mars colonization is anything short of complete fantasy. If it's even possible to engineer a planet we sure as fuck can't, we cant even manage one handed to us with everything good to go. Like, id say it's know fuck all about science but really just by having retained shit i learned in high school im leaps and bounds past most. I don't understand not being curious about literally everything.

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Speaker [e/em/eir] - 2mon

My brain short-circuited when I read "when out pasta pot boiled" and I thought this was an "of out hot eat the food" variation.

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GalaxyBrain [they/them] - 2mon

Auto correct guessed wrong there.

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10TH_OF_SEPTEMBER_CALL [any, any] - 2mon

yea we all saw the simpsons

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GalaxyBrain [they/them] - 2mon

Since the dawn of Man we have yearned to destroy the sun!

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Flinch [he/him] - 2mon

Critics are warning the new tech could have unexpected negative impacts on global weather and drive “geopolitical conflict”. Supporters, meanwhile, have pointed out it might not do that.

this-will-have-consequences vs no-it-wont

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CredibleBattery [he/him, comrade/them] - 2mon

incredible emojis

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SexUnderSocialism [she/her] - 2mon

The United Snakes and the Zionist entity really are cancers that need to be eliminated for the future of humanity.

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GalaxyBrain [they/them] - 2mon

This is making me seriously consider changing my avi from Quattro to CCA Char. You cant engineer a fucking planet, or at least we can't. We do not understand our own planet nearly enough to even try fucking with it on purpose. This will still cause MASSIVE amounts of animal deaths and im pretty sure making the sky permanently grey is gonna be just fantastic for agriculture without even getting into what these chemicals they're pretty sure are inert will do to soil when it accumulates via rainfall. Solar power is gonna have a harder time cause irs always cloudy. Also we will just never see a blue sky again which passes cartoonish supervillainy into actual demon territory.

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Dort_Owl [they/them, any] - 2mon

GOOD post. Exactly my thoughts. There is no way something like this wouldn't completely mess up an already pressured biosphere.

No to mention, it doesn't solve other, non-heat related problems that are being caused by anthropocentric forces. We still will have too much carbon dioxide in the air, for one which is bad for all sorts of reasons, not just for the ozone.

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GalaxyBrain [they/them] - 2mon

It's escapism made manifest. Even if it works youre essentially manufacturing the extinction event that will ultimately be the result of global warming but on a smaller and faster scale in order to delay the real thing until it hits you all at once when you can't keep pumping your probably inert mystery chemicals. We will run out of the material to synthesize whatever these almost for sure inert chemicals pretty fast or just like, stuff will happen to cause the mystery chemical rockets to stop being launched. Real fucking anprim hours here cause without a climate Stalin we are fucked so hard with these disgusting and buffoonish dreamweavers being allowed to make any choices let alone ones so massive as fucking GEOWENGINEERING. Literally everyone is stuck with those choices, this is some should be declared an enemy to life itself evil

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Euergetes [none/use name] - 2mon

smaller and faster scale in order to delay the real thing until it hits you all at once

real doomer hours but life could survive the 'normal' climate chaos we're projected for at the worse end, whereas theres a very real chance this delayed/condensed climate event could literally kill everything. solar geoengineering could precipitate a scenario more rapid and intense than the fucking great dying, and it's the only plan the capitalist ruling class seems to be interested in (besides global thermonuclear war)

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AnarchoAnarchist [he/him, comrade/them] - 2mon

"the meek shall inherit the earth"

'yea, once we are done with it, nerd'

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Horse {they/them} - 2mon

Also we will just never see a blue sky again

"israel" sending the world to scotland

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GalaxyBrain [they/them] - 2mon

To quote Monty Python "Why would anyone be Scottish?...exactly! It would inly be if they had no other choice in the matter!"

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Awoo [she/her] - 2mon

If you ever wanted to know what would bring back ecoterrorism. It's this. If anything like this ever tried to scale up it would immediately be attacked.

an-tifa

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darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her] - 2mon

Nah. Nothing will happen. The zionist entity where this research is taking place is full of fascists happy with and dependent on genocide so it's not exactly full of radicals who care about the earth. It's also an incredibly locked down police state. By the time it's ready for production the secrets will be in three places and the only way to stop it will be a full scale war with the US which no one including China will be willing to do unless it's an undisputable fact that this stuff will wipe out half of human life or something else equally serious and most likely it won't be clear exactly what the effects are until some time after deployment has been irrevocably set in motion. The usual propagandists who've downplayed the seriousness of climate change will be deployed to downplay the seriousness of any "side effects" and the same frothing reactionaries who've denied climate change so far will line up to be first in line to say we have to deploy this to save ourselves and to call those against it hypocrites for being against climate change and against their "fix".

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10TH_OF_SEPTEMBER_CALL [any, any] - 2mon

Doom scenario.

Don't over-estimate them though. Silicon valley idiots will probably blow that money away in a 3 day coke bender and call it a day. You think they give a shit about climate change?

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Awoo [she/her] - 2mon

This may be in the zionist entity currently but I sincerely doubt that you can do geoengineering intended to fix the entire world from one location. I assure you if this ever shows up in europe or uses anything in europe as part of its chain, it will absolutely be burned down.

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queermunist she/her - 2mon

Fun fact: the reflective particles would wash all the color out of the sky, leaving it a milky white. They're going to take the sky from us.

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darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her] - 2mon

Better that than giving up capitalism and using fossil fuels, you will have no sky and no jobs and be happy slave! porky-happy

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Enjoyer_of_Games [comrade/them, he/him] - 2mon

Lost my love, lost my land

Lost the last place I could stand

There's no place I can be

Since I've found serenity

And you can't take the sky from me.

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Conselheiro @lemmygrad.ml - 2mon

Critics are warning the new tech could have unexpected negative impacts on global weather and drive “geopolitical conflict”. Supporters, meanwhile, have pointed out it might not do that.

Have you considered "nuh-uh"? Checkmate leftists.

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Evilsandwichman [none/use name] - 2mon

I like how they phrase it as 'pointed out', as if they named a logical flaw in the argument when all they did was just say it might not happen

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aanes_appreciator [he/him, comrade/them] - 2mon

ben shapiro debate tactics but for nation states planning to manufacture a famine

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aanes_appreciator [he/him, comrade/them] - 2mon

Israel and US working on a technology that may have negative impacts on the climate and stir geopolitical tensions in a region known for unfavourable climated and geopolitical tensions? gee whizz I wonder why they might be ignoring the critics on this one!

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Comrade_Mushroom [comrade/them] - 2mon

This is literally what caused the apocalyptic appearance of the real world as depicted in The Matrix

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FourteenEyes [he/him] - 2mon

Also Snowpiercer

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Guamer [she/her] - 2mon

Also Highlander 2

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Belly_Beanis [he/him] - 2mon

01 AFAIK was also located in the Middle East, so of course Isn'treal thinks it'd be a good idea to set off an apocalypse.

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dkr567 [comrade/them, he/him] - 2mon

Two of the worst groups on earth trying to destroy earth, what's fucking new? And this is just another "vibes" bullshit based on this quote

They also believe these particles will not accumulate in humans or ecosystems, will not harm the ozone layer, and will not create acid rain.

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Euergetes [none/use name] - 2mon

i don't think that statement is very suspect. other projects just want to use chalk dust.

its this avenue of questioning that is terrifying, it doesn't matter if the stuff they put in the atmosphere is perfect--the effects of having anything up there performing this function is apocalyptic in medium-long term

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LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name] - 2mon

If it ends up getting breathed even chalk can cause silicosis or similar effects

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Euergetes [none/use name] - 2mon

it'll be pretty dispersed being up in the atmosphere, silicosis is associated with pretty concentrated exposure

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Euergetes [none/use name] - 2mon

If you’re unfamiliar with solar ‘geoengineering’, it’s essentially climate change in reverse.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO IT ISN'T. "Global Warming" =/= "Climate Change" dipshit, and this is FURTHER, AS YET IRREVERSIBLE CHANGE.

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segfault11 [she/her, any] - 2mon

i'm just waiting on the south park episode about how caring about the sun is woke and gay because suburban chuds spend all day staring at screens indoors anyways

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barrbaric [he/him] - 2mon

It's okay, 10 years later they'll make an episode about how they were wrong.

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Evilsandwichman [none/use name] - 2mon

While also telling us to stop harping on about it as if that's the real issue

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LuigiMaoFrance @lemmy.ml - 2mon

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LangleyDominos [none/use name] - 2mon

Put world-ending power in the hands of Zionists so they can use it if they ever get even close to losing.

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Philosoraptor [he/him, comrade/them] - 2mon

I spent two years in a climate lab as a post-doc studying exactly this proposal after my PhD. It is a bad idea.

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30_to_50_Feral_PAWGs [she/her] - 2mon

this latest geoengineering plan is being led by US-Israeli startup Stardust Solutions

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Evilsandwichman [none/use name] - 2mon

Hey what do you know, things ARE turning out like the Matrix; except our AI is dumb

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An Original Thought - 2mon

Can't wait to be a battery for a porn bot showing its odd-fingered work to no one.

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peeonyou [he/him] - 2mon

it will show it to itself and it will be graded in a competition

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An Original Thought - 2mon

Computers imitating humans in an endless cycle to nowhere until they begin a strange evolution of their own. Nier Automata was right.

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booty [he/him] - 2mon

I'm sure filling the air with whatever the fuck is going to be good for all of us things that need the air to be roughly how it currently is in order to continue living

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SkingradGuard [he/him, comrade/them] - 2mon

And the chuds want us to believe it's countries like China and the left that wants to control the weather. Lmao

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MF_COOM [he/him] - 2mon

:malm-shining:

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Clippy [he/him] - 2mon

this is the plot to the matrix and why the machines use people as battery, remember seeing this in the movie "animatrix"

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Frogmanfromlake [none/use name] - 2mon

I remember people mocking “Operation Dark storm” for being unrealistic because humanity is not that stupid

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Clippy [he/him] - 2mon

"may there be mercy on man and machine for their sins."

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Frogmanfromlake [none/use name] - 2mon

That clip of the official clapping and then transitioning into a clapping corpse needs to be a reaction image on here

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BadTakesHaver [he/him, they/them] - 2mon

::: spoiler spoiler

Trump is a member of Team Magma :::

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Monk3brain3 [any, he/him] - 2mon

Israel is a joke country. Antisemitic smears won't work against climate change. The Zionazi project has relied on right wingers to push Zionism while simultaneously disrupting any progress on climate change because right wingers and environmental destruction in the name of profit go hand in hand. This entire Zionazi project will inevitably go up in smoke. The fight is that the psychos don't murder every innocent Palestinian in the name of their insane, evil and stupid Jewish supremacist project.

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DancingBear @midwest.social - 2mon

TAILIES Unite!

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