Sam Altman, Chris Sacca, Bill Trenchard, and Rachel Pritzker invite you to join a private briefing featuring leading research efforts in the most promising approach to rapidly cooling the climate—increasing the reflection of sunlight from the atmosphere. With the climate projected to warm over the next 30-40 years in every scenario for emissions reduction, approaches to cooling climate may be important for protecting the world’s people and natural systems.

MAIN EVENT: July 27, 2021, 9:00-11:00am PDT in person at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and via Video Conference (details to come). The event will review the latest developments in sunlight reflection research and review a 5-year roadmap to assess and develop the most promising approaches. Featuring presentations by SilverLining’s leadership, it will cover the progress of groundbreaking research efforts in the past year and key new initiatives.

SilverLining leadership: Kelly Wanser, Executive Director of SilverLining and Alex Wong, Research Director, SilverLining, previously, Program Analyst , DARPA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth’s Radiation Budget Program, David Fahey, Director, Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA
VPE Aerospace Consulting “Old Ghosts”, Don Bingaman, previously, Boeing Phantomworks
US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Analysis of Risks and Impacts of Solar Climate Intervention on the Earth System (ARISE) , Jean-Francois Lamarque , Director, Global Climate Dynamics Laboratory
Colorado State University Climate Intervention Program, Jim Hurrell, Scott Presidential Chair, Environmental Science and Engineering, CSU, previously, Director, NCAR
University of Washington/PARC Marine Cloud Brightening Program, Sarah Doherty, Program Director and Atmospheric Scientist, UW; Sean Garner, CEO, Bright, previously, VP Research, PARC
The event will also include Discussion among funders about their priorities, questions and experiences in supporting the category.

LAB TOUR & DEMO: July 27, 2021, 11:00am-12:00pm PDT Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) Post-event, in-person attendees can visit the lab for a demonstration of the spray technology for marine cloud brightening and discussion of technical plans.

TED DINNER: August 3, 2021, Monterrey (details to come) Hosts Bill Trenchard, Clay Dumas and David Biello (Science Curator for TED and author of the Unnatural World) will lead a candid discussion of the dynamics of philanthropic funding in this challenging emerging space. The event includes dialogue with Kelly Wanser, Executive Director of SilverLining, on a 5-year road-map and recent developments in research and policy.

___________________________________________

Global warming has reached new records with risks of catastrophic changes within a decade or two. The COVID-19 crisis has brought to light our vulnerability to systemic problems which, when unchecked, can grow exponentially. Climate change is this kind of problem, one for which today we lack emergency medicine.

Reducing greenhouse gases is foundational to addressing climate change, but even in the most optimistic projections, emissions reduction and carbon removal efforts require many decades to take effect, leaving us without insurance against near-term catastrophic risks.

Scientific assessments suggest that the most promising way to reduce warming in the near-term is enhancing the natural cooling of Earth’s atmosphere by increasing the reflection of sunlight through scattering particles in the stratosphere or brightening clouds. Such approaches could act on the climate system very quickly—even within a few years. But today, we have very little information on these approaches, and scientists believe it could take 5-10 years of concerted work to assess them. Yet the global level of investment in research is still very small. While this field will ultimately require government and multilateral investment, philanthropic funding today may be critical to put us on track to answer foundational questions and identify options within a decade.

Last year, SilverLining launched a groundbreaking research fund to help accelerate scientific understanding of near-term climate risks and rapid responses. With remarkable success in initiating new programs and catalyzing U.S. federal agency efforts, the Safe climate Research Initiative (SCRI) is poised to help advance a 5-year effort across private and public efforts to assess sunlight reflection approaches and expand the information infrastructure required for managing climate.

Photographs courtesy of Christopher Michel

SUNLIGHT REFLECTION DIALOGUE: A Roadmap for Research in Emergency Medicine for Climate