Mad scientists in the Baja!

We’ve seen hair-brained ideas in the Baja before… from William Walker’s “Republic of Sonora”… which quickly devolved into the “Republic of a couple square blocks of La Paz before Walker was sent packing in 1854 (rather than, as would have saved everyone a lot of trouble… putting him up against a wall and shooting him) to Ervil Le Baron … from a “heretical” Mormon sect …..lanching a “holy war” against his brother’s “heritical” heretical Mormon sect) back in the 1970s, to quack medical clinics to Libertarians… but mad scientists?

Seems so. No one seriusly doubts the planet is getting warmer… and there is pretty much consesus on the causation, though a few oddball sceptics out there have an “alternative solution” to the problem. Rather than lowering atmosphereic carbon which traps heat on earth, the “geoengineers” propose lowering the earth’s temperature by decrasing the amount of energy reaching the earth… i.e., blocking out sunlight.

Somehow, Harvard University (the real one, in Cambridge, MA) along with a well.known “venture capital” broup, Pironeer Fund.. underwrote experiencts by some group calling itself ETC (which promises to sell not “carbon offsets”…a semi-scam all by itself), but what they call “climate offsets” — something I don’t think any government considers a tax deductins at this point) wotj attempts to “diffuse” the sunight, by bombarding the admisphere with sulfer dioxide chrystals.

HUH? Wasn’t that the stuff that was causing acid rain? And… given the desert climate of the Baja, who in their right mind would want to poison what water there is? Not to mention the effects on crops and other living beings. Or how much sunlight you can really block out by launding high altatude balloons to scatter sulfer dioxide aross the skies of the Baja.

The State and Federal governments both claim they knew nothing about the probject, nor were their any permits issued to ETC to try this. Forget it, it’s the Baja.

(Jornada)