Scientists Looking to Scatter Moon Dust Around Earth to Combat ‘Climate Change’

The "Super Blood Moon" total eclipse seen over Santa Monica, Calif., on May 26, 2021. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

A group of scientists has proposed creating a shield made of moon dust positioned between the Earth and the sun as a way to lower the planet’s temperature in a bid to combat “climate change,” a plan that could have devastating consequences.

In a Feb. 8 study published in the journal PLOS, three researchers from the University of Utah proposed their moon dust shield idea while calling climate change an “existential threat.” Large quantities of moon dust between the Earth and the sun can “reduce the amount of sunlight received on our planet,” they claimed while estimating that billions of kilograms of moon dust will be needed annually to maintain the shield. “Because dust grains between Earth and the Sun tend to drift out of alignment, they must be replenished,” the study said.

The “most promising” scenario for creating the shield involves mining lunar dust and ballistically blasting it from the moon on a trajectory toward the Earth-sun L1 Lagrange point, a gravitationally stable point located 900,000 miles from Earth.

The plan is estimated to potentially lower sunlight by 1.8 percent or around six days of sunlight per year, thereby lowering the Earth’s temperature.

“Advantages of this concept include a ready supply of lunar dust, as well as a low kinetic energy cost as compared to an Earth launch,” the study states.

“Individual dust grains on these trajectories rapidly drift out of alignment, clearing the Earth-Moon system with no impact on Earth’s atmosphere. There is no need to actively manipulate orbits to remove dust when sun shielding is no longer beneficial.”

Disastrous Consequences

Proposals to reduce sunlight coming into the Earth, called solar geoengineering, have attracted severe criticism. In an interview with The Hill, Dr. Michael Mann, a climate scientist from the University of Pennsylvania, said that such interventions can end up doing more harm than good.

Though reducing sunlight can result in the cooling down of the Earth, it acts on a “very different part of the climate system” than on carbon dioxide, he pointed out.

“And efforts to offset carbon dioxide-caused warming with sunlight reduction would yield a very different climate, perhaps one unlike any seen before in Earth’s history, with massive shifts in atmospheric circulation and rainfall patterns and possible worsening of droughts,” Mann said.

He also warned that as the Earth continues to heat up, the demand for stronger solar dimming would arise. This could lead to a “catastrophic ‘termination shock’ wherein a century of pent-up global heating emerges within a decade.”

Open Letter Against Solar Geoengineering

There are several ongoing solar geoengineering attempts. In December, it was reported that California-based startup Make Sunsets launched weather balloons from Mexico capable of releasing reflective sulfur particles into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Last year, a group of 380 scientists wrote an open letter asking for global governments to pledge not to engage in solar geoengineering attempts.

The letter warned that the risks of such projects are “poorly understood and can never be fully known” as there are uncertainties about their effect on agriculture and weather patterns, among other things.

It pointed out that the current global governance system is “unfit” to develop and implement far-reaching agreements that are necessary to maintain fair and effective political control over these projects.

“Without effective global and democratic controls, the geopolitics of possible unilateral deployment of solar geoengineering would be frightening and inequitable,” the letter said.

“Given the anticipated low monetary costs of some of these technologies, there is a risk that a few powerful countries would engage in solar geoengineering unilaterally or in small coalitions even when a majority of countries oppose such deployment.”