Press Advisory
Contact: Charles Margulis, 510-697-0615 (cell);
Diana Bronson, ETC Group, (514)-273-6661, (514) 629-9236 (cell)
Environmental Watchdogs Raise Concerns About San Francisco Company and its International Geoengineering Conference in California This Week
Climate Experiments Pursued for Profit Pose Serious Environmental Risks, Warns More Than 70 Groups
WHAT: Press Briefing on concerns around this week’s “International
Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies”
WHERE: San Francisco Foundation
225 Bush St (entrance closest to Sansome St)
Suite 500 (Fifth Floor), in the Koshland Room
WHEN: Thursday, March 25, 2:30 pm
WHO: Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group (Mexico office)
Victor Menotti, Executive Director, International Forum on Globalization
San Francisco, CA - Geoengineering projects purport to solve climate change by the large-scale manipulation the environment -- shooting sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere, fertilizing the ocean, and whitening clouds. This week, a San Francisco company, Climos, will be a key player at the “International Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies” in Asilomar, called to create voluntary guidelines for the real-world experimentation of planetary climate manipulation.
Based in San Francisco, Climos is a controversial geoengineering company led by Dan Whaley, formerly a co-founder of an internet travel agency. Climos seeks to cash in on the lucrative carbon offset market through dubious carbon-sequestering schemes involving “fertilizing” oceans with iron particles. Earlier this month, a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that such schemes could poison ocean wildlife and the food chain, ultimately posing human health risks when people consume seafood.
Led by the ETC Group, more than 70 environmental, health, and social and environmental justice organizations have signed an “Open Letter” to the organizers of the Asilomar meeting, stating that the development of guidelines for geoengineering without consensus on the legitimacy of such schemes is “premature and irresponsible.” The groups say that such efforts could proceed only with full participation of peoples and nations who are most vulnerable to the risks of mass climate experiments.
The Open Letter is online at http://www.etcgroup.org/en/node/5080 . More background on Climos and geoengineering is at http://www.etcgroup.org/en/node/4966 .
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