A song from the late 90s by Len. But this request (not to) was in vain, the UK government has announced £50,000,000 of funding to ‘dim the Sun’, in a bid to counter climate change, reports the Manchester Evening News, on the back of a paywalled report in the Daily Telegraph.
Scientists are planning on ‘dimming the Sun’ in a bid to curb global warming. The UK government is set to announce funding of up to £50m of funding for Sun-dimming experiments in the coming weeks, the Telegraph reports.
Does no one remember our wise Danish King Canute? He showed, over 1,000 years ago, that the State is all but powerless in the face of Nature. Of course not. Here is more on the plans.
It comes as the National Environment Research Council (NERC) announced on April 3 that it will invest £10 million of new funding to study these solar radiation management schemes (SRM).
According to Professor Mark Symes, the programme director for the Government’s advanced research and invention funding agency, known as Aria, there would be “small controlled outdoor experiments on particular approaches”. These experiments could include injecting aerosols into the atmosphere or brightening clouds to reflect sunlight.
Crucially, there is an acronym ‘SRM’, so this is one of those funding streams that will take on a monstrous life of its own. One might think that the Manchester Evening News (think Seattle but without the glamour) might have something to say seeing as it is a notoriously rainy city, but not a peep about the absurdity of it. Nor has there been any comment on the impact on solar energy generation, which provides ‘carbon neutral’ energy (but what about the deuterium lost in solar energy production?).
The UK government seeks to control the Sun, and how much it shines on you. Chairman Mao and the four pests comes to mind.
To be fair, these proposals have generated plenty of online ridicule, but that won’t stop it. That the UK is circling the drain is perhaps better shown by this Icarian hubris than anything else.
And of course, once you accept their premises, you are only arguing about tactics and strategy, not the ends.
Manchester is less rainy than the cities of Glasgow, Cardiff, Preston, Bradford, Leeds, Swansea, Belfast and Plymouth.
Leeds has more rain than Manchester? I very much don’t think so!
Oh dear, I have seem to have started a meteorological War of the Roses, even as the Socialists steal the Sun of York.
Leeds has a better museum than Manchester – the Royal Armoury Museum, at least it was when I lived in the north (many years ago now).
As for the plans of the government of the United Kingdom.
On this matter they are the most extreme national government in the world – utterly fanatical.
This is what people do not understand about the British establishment (for it is the establishment who make policy – the ordinary British people have no say) – far from being “pragmatic” they are really driven by ideological fashions – which are followed with a herd mentality.
Nothing, not financial corruption (they will accept the bribes – but then carry on doing the things they were bribed not to do) – and certainly not the interests of the common people, can stop an ideological fashion that the British establishment follow.
“But this will destroy the country” – or even “but this will destroy the world” will not stop them – you see it is POLICY and POLICY must be followed.
The Bond villains are taking over the world.
Travelling from Yorkshire to the wrong side of the Pennines on the train, many a time setting off it would be t shirt weather at all times the year. Emerging from the Walsden Tunnel it was like entering Mordor.
When Monty Burns tried this he was immediately shot by an unidentified assailant.
(To this day I believe Maggie was framed).
Not the first time The Simpsons has proved eerily prescient albeit not when President Lisa blamed her predecessor, Donald Trump, for an inherited budget crisis.
Still, as an unlikeable actress said “that’s Hollywood baby”.
I was just about to post “Simpsons Already Done It”. 😉
These experiments could include injecting aerosols into the atmosphere or brightening clouds to reflect sunlight.
Oh well, there go “chemtrails” – another fun conspiracy theory becomes true.
Am I nuts for thinking that, should some country decide to try to start blocking the sun’s rays, they would be a legitimate target for attack by the rest of humanity?
If you want to cover your own land with solar panels, that’s your business.
But if you want to dim MY sun in some misplaced anti-warming experiment, you are threatening my survival should your science be incorrect.
And, if you’re worried about CAGW, your science is already incorrect.
No you are not nuts but someone clearly is.
I suspect the UK government would also willingly fund research into solving the problem by moving the earth slightly further away from the sun.
Up until this year so would yours.
Bobby B is surely right: if the UK starts dimming the sun globally, in pursuit of its own God of Paucity, it will certainly have repercussions on the rest of the world. To take the most obvious example, what if British dimming of the sun causes failure (or the reverse) of India’s monsoons? How many die in Bangladesh? Would India and Bangladesh be justified in launching a war against Britain?
What if solar dimming causes a temperature drop of two degrees across the northern part of the world? We’d be back in the horrors of the catastrophic 17th century.
What monstrous egotism, what pyschotic narcissism drives these people?
King Canute is not available for comment.