Strangely, or not, these alternatives are promoted by the governments of developed countries and big corporations, i.e. the main responsible for the climate crisis.

Villa talked about this during the international seminar on Climate crisis, technological threats and methodologies for resistance, which is being held this week in San Jose, Costa Rica.

“Some of these proposals are not entirely new and they have been discussed internationally. There is even a moratorium on the use of these technologies”, explained Villa.

She gave the example of Geo-engineering, which consists in changing the global climate through technologies such as marine fertilization, carbon capture, the planting of genetically modified organisms and the creation of artificial clouds to block sun beams.

Villa said that proposals like marine fertilization, consist in “spraying iron nanoparticles on the sea” to provoke the growth of plankton. The promoters of this initiative claim that the plankton would absorb carbon dioxide and cellulose may be obtained from it.

The ETC Group’s researcher forecasted that the consequences for the planet of a large scale technology based on nanotechnology is “unpredictable”. She said it is proved that iron used in marine fertilization would enter in the marine trophic chain, thus affecting almost all beings living under the sea.
The nanoparticles would also contaminate food taken from the sea for human consumption.

Another proposed solution to climate change is the creation of clouds similar to the ones produced in big volcanic eruptions, also made up by nanoparticles.

The scientist that promoted this Project, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Paul Crutzen, says this could prevent the sun beams from penetrating the Earth, thus contributing to cooling the planet.

“The idea of preventing the sun beams from penetrating the Earth is not only pretentious but also dangerous, because of the consequences of any sulphur toxic cloud. If it fell that would have impacts on water, communities and soil”, warned Villa.

She then recalled that most technologies created to alter climate were used by war technology in the past with tragic consequences for countries and peoples.

To sum up, reality shows that the countries that have been historically responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and climate commodification are now the ones pushing for these geo-engineering projects.

Photo: Gabi Negro