UK chooses war with the Sun instead of taxing big energy.
a state that approved 100+ new oil licenses now wants to... dim the sky rather than touch fossil fuel profits?
Good day, spectators,
And what do you do when the planet is on fire? Well if you are in the UK and working at the Ministry of Absolutely Deranged Solutions, the answer is simple: you fight the sun. Or something like that.
That’s right. While oil executives cackle and count their trillions and AI data centres guzzle enough energy to literally power small nations, the British government has decided the real problem is… too much sun?
And the latest stroke of genius? A taxpayer-funded experiment in ‘solar radiation management’ which is just a fancy term for spraying reflective particles into the atmosphere to deflect sunlight, or ‘brighten clouds’ because apparently, the real issue was weather and physics, not capitalism let loose.
the ‘plan’.
The UK government, through its Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), has given 50 million pounds to outdoor geoengineering experiments aimed at temporarily cooling the planet. These experiments involve releasing tiny particles into the stratosphere to copy the cooling effects one would see after a massive volcanic eruption. Obviously this will temporarily cool an area but it does not address the root cause of climate change: the accumulation of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Consequently, issues like ocean acidification and crop failures persist, even if Europeans are more comfortable in the Summer.
And it’s generally just senseless. In 1991, we saw the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. A massive fart of sulphur dioxide so gargantuan, it led to significant, albeit temporary, global cooling. But it also disrupted global rainfall patterns, leading to reduced precipitation and affecting freshwater resources worldwide.
Many people died because of this imbalance so who knows what the results of messing with the atmosphere will be?
Ironically, the UK, home to major oil companies like BP and Shell and a government that recently approved new North Sea oil licenses, is now investing in geoengineering solutions. It’s a bizarre double speak.
Instead of properly taxing the record profits of big oil companies, the financial burden of funding these experimental sun-deflecting projects will fall on, you guessed it, the taxpayer. Moreover, while the energy demands of artificial intelligence technologies, such as ChatGPT—which voraciously eats up energy and water—remain unregulated.
Instead, they blame the sun for our climate issues.
Ultimately, they’re distracting us and buying time for polluters. By framing sunlight as the primary problem, they divert attention from the continued use of fossil fuels.
could it be any more Black Mirror?
So let’s imagine we normalise spraying dodgy chemicals into the sky to fight the sun and remain cool. In this world, the wealthy and powerful continue to fuck things up; oil companies will keep drilling and tech industries continue to eat up vast amounts of energy. Meanwhile, we, the majority of working-class people, bear the cost of unproven geoengineering projects likely tampering with the delicate balance of our atmosphere even more. Probably leading to unstable weather patterns, failed monsoons and widespread famine in vulnerable regions. Just so richer areas can maintain comfortable climates?
This is a blatantly a cop-out. Rather than implementing meaningful emissions reductions, the neoliberal UK government is opting for the high-risk strategy of atmospheric intervention. A crap Hail Mary.
Another desperation play by a dying empire. What you’re witnessing is a country that would rather engineer the apocalypse than admit its economic model is the problem.
What do you think, spectators? Comment below, I love the discussion.
(And as always, thanks for reading, make sure to subscribe and do please give this post a ❤️ and restack below too.)
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I, for one, am tired of being cannon fodder for Big Oil and the rest of the oligarchs in their war against the rest of humanity to preserve the failed capitalistic system. These parasites are out to destroy us out of their unrestrained greed and lack of concern for anybody except themselves. Exterminating all of them would be a service to humanity.
For fucking fuck's fucking sake🤦♀️