Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Primum non nocere

Among the few latin phrases that a large number of people have heard is that one: primum non nocere, which translates as "first, do no harm." Like most quotes, it's probably not from the source most of us think it's from - in this case it's not from the Hippocratic oath, which was in Greek.  Far from strictly being a Medical Doctor's oath, which is a person to person interaction, primum non nocere applies to group interactions as well.  When you contemplate doing things with a potentially large population that might be affected by something you do, it's good to remember this.

In this case the population is the entire world, and the issue is Bill Gates is throwing his spare change into an effort to cool the earth by dimming the sun.  Gates is one of the main funders of Harvard University's Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx).
According to Reuters, a Harvard University project plans to test out a controversial theory that global warming can be stopped by spraying particles into the atmosphere that would reflect the sun’s rays.

The project represents one of the most controversial aspects of what’s known as “geoengineering” — the idea that, to tackle issues like climate change, massive aspects of our ecosystem can be played with or changed. In this case, it would involve reflecting some of the sun’s rays to stop them from reaching Earth.

“Open-air research into spraying tiny, sun-reflecting particles into the stratosphere, to offset global warming, has been stalled for years by controversies – including that it could discourage needed cuts in greenhouse gas emissions,” Reuters reported.
Since every single joule of energy that the earth gets comes from the sun, and every single living thing on earth, from the simplest virus to the most complex mammals, depends on the sun for its life,  this is one area of research where the ground rules need to be the most stringent that can be applied.  It needs to be verified with no doubt in a large number of experiments and every last little thing that doesn't seem to be exactly as predicted needs to be cleared. 

The article on Western Journal goes into some of the issues, but mostly from the standpoint that the objections to this project have come from people saying it will distract from getting the world to cut CO2 emissions. 
There are several problems with this plan, not the least of which is that we don’t know what the unintended consequences might be. But to environmentalists, the problem is that it doesn’t solve global warming the way they want to do it.

“There is no merit in this test except to enable the next step. You can’t test the trigger of a bomb and say ‘This can’t possibly do any harm,'” said Niclas Hällström, director of the Sweden-based environmentalist think-tank WhatNext?
I don't see how something of this magnitude could be done without unintended consequences; changes to weather patterns, changes to ocean circulation patterns, changes to plant growth with the potential of mass famine, changes to the amount of Vitamin D that people make from sunlight exposure with concomitant changes to wellness in the world's populations. Further, the extent of all of these things won't be known - at best - until exhaustive tests are run. 

It doesn't even have to work to cause trouble. Imagine if a country, say China (since they've expressed interest in weather control) runs some experiments that ultimately do nothing.  Two years later, the monsoons fail in India causing mass starvation and deaths.  Can you see Indians not being convinced China told the truth and starting a war over a failed experiment?  Similarly, what if the experiment works and the climate change makes someplace like China or the US' Midwest grain belt have better weather while people somewhere else have worse weather problems, even if it's not directly from the experiment.  Can you see the people with worse weather striking out against the people who they perceive made their weather worse? 

In August of '19, the Daily Mail (UK) did a good summary of the story and potential problems. I've barely scratched the surface.


Solar Geoengineering ideas, to reduce solar power reaching the Earth.  From the Daily Mail.

Ya know, it's awfully hard not to think of Gates as Mr. Burns in this classic clip from the Simpsons.



10 comments:

  1. You want an ice age? This is how you get an ice age.

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  2. I think Gate's has lost it. He's been getting weirder and weirder over the last 15 years, but the last few years he's gone over the edge....

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  3. What do you mean, "first, do no harm"? The goal is to produce the worldwide ecological disaster from reduced solar input portrayed by the movies The Matrix and The Road.

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  4. Sometimes I feel as if I'm living in The Matrix.

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  5. Sometimes I wonder if aluminum and barium salts sprayed into the atmosphere would cause weather, ocean circulation, food crop, and Vitamin D reduction worldwide.

    Then I look at all the tree dieback, the aluminum-resistant corn patents from a dozen years ago, the fine weather and ocean patterns, the way COVID strikes those with Vitamin D deficiency, the persistent contrails for the last decade or so, and wonder what I'm wondering about?

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  6. Bill Gates, I believe, has expressed a desire to reduce world population. What a wonderful way to achieve it by creating a climatic disaster worse than their perceived "global warming" and killing off 50% of humans and other life. They could then return the Earth to a globally governed technological feudal state that Bill Gates and his ilk rule.

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  7. Gates and all other megawealthy indididuals are convinced their wealth makes them better, smarter, and more capable than voters, lawmakers, and scientists. Gates is not a scientist or lawmaker.
    Like Bloomberg, Soros, and others who buy their way to impose their beliefs on society, Gates is genuinely dangerous. I suspect this is another Gates project to depopulate the earth.

    I suggest the earth be depopulated of Gates and the others who use their wealth and power to control people by imposing their will upon the people. That inclufes communists and fascists.

    A 6 yr old can conduct a simple experiment to judge the effects on plant life that are shaded from the sun. They will tell you that the flowers and grass died.

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. But... but... green energy! What would happen to all the solar cells? And the wind turbines? Guess we go back to heavy use of fossil fuels so we don't all freeze to death.

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  10. About 40 years ago a French "scientist" proposed putting mirrors on the moon to have light 24/7. Then about 20 years ago it was proposed to have solar collectors beam microwaves to earth. I am not sure "Dr. Dooms" death ray would be allowed by any country. Also, one of the proposed Nazi wonder weapons was a solar mirror used to fry US and other cities.

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