—David Keith is the professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago and Daniele Visioni is an assistant professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University
Last week, an American-Israeli company that claims it’s developed proprietary technology to cool the planet announced it had raised $60 million, by far the largest known venture capital round to date for a solar geoengineering startup.
The company, Stardust, says the funding will enable it to develop a system that could be deployed by the start of the next decade, according to Heatmap, which broke the story.
As scientists who have worked on the science of solar geoengineering for decades, we have grown increasingly concerned about emerging efforts to start and fund private companies to deploy technologies that could alter the climate of the planet. We also strongly dispute some of the technical claims that certain companies have made about their offerings. Read the full story.
This story is part of Heat Exchange, MIT Technology Review’s guest opinion series offering expert commentary on legal, political and regulatory issues related to climate change and clean energy. You can read the rest of the series here.
Can “The Simpsons” really predict the future?
According to internet listicles, the animated sitcom The Simpsons has predicted the future anywhere from 17 to 55 times.
The show foresaw Donald Trump becoming US President a full 17 years before the real estate mogul was inaugurated as the 45th leader of the United States. Earlier, in 1993, an episode of the show featured the “Osaka flu,” which some felt was eerily prescient of the coronavirus pandemic. And—somehow!—Simpsons writers just knew that the US Olympic curling team would beat Sweden eight whole years before they did it.
Al Jean has worked on The Simpsons on and off since 1989; he is the cartoon’s longest-serving showrunner. Here, he reflects on the conspiracy theories that have sprung from these apparent prophecies. Read the full story.
—Amelia Tait
This story is part of MIT Technology Review’s series “The New Conspiracy Age,” about how the present boom in conspiracy theories is reshaping science and technology.