UK - United Kingdom - 2008 onwards - Climate Modification
#3 - A summary of the UK's climate modification activity
UK - United Kingdom Climate Modification
The UK's climate modification interest's and history span across various fields. There is an Ionospheric Heater in Wales which is a NERC/MST facility operating in association with the University of Aberystwyth. There have also been various climate modification experiments which mostly come to light after the event has taken place. The wider public are not informed of these experiments beforehand due to the backlash that is and has been received.
2008/2009
In October 2009 the Labour MP for Selly Oak, Birmingham, Lynne Jones asked the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what geo-engineering research had been funded by the government covering the period 2008/2009 for the purpose of combatting climate change. Joan Ruddock, the Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) informed the House that the DECC office had financed a small amount of modelling work into the environmental consequences of several geo-engineering options, including injecting sulphate aerosols into the stratosphere and encouraging low level cloud development to increase regional reflectivity.
2009/2010
In October 2010 the Conservative MP for Warrington South, David Mowatt asked the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the DECC policy is on the use of geo-engineering to combat the effects of climate change and what funding has been provided for such activities in 2009/2010. The DECC Minister of State, Gregory Barker stated that DECC recognised the role geo-engineering could have in the future and that research is needed to understand the risks and benefits of the technologies involved. The DECC department provided £136,228- to the MET Office Hadley Centre for computer modelling to investigate the impacts of injecting aerosols into the stratosphere.
2010 - The Regulation of Geo-Engineering - The Science & Technology Committee report
In March 2010 the House of Commons, Science and Technology Committee released its report titled: The Regulation of Geo-Engineering, the Fifth report of Session 2009-10.
The Science and Technology Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Government Office for Science. The following MP's sat on the committee at the time of the reports release: Phil Willis (Liberal Democrat, Harrogate and Knaresborough)(Chair), Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour, City of Durham), Tim Boswell (Conservative, Daventry), Ian Cawsey (Labour, Brigg & Goole), Nadine Dorries (Conservative, Mid Bedfordshire), Dr Evan Harris (Liberal Democrat, Oxford West & Abingdon), Dr Brian Iddon (Labour, Bolton South East), Gordon Marsden (Labour, Blackpool South), Dr Doug Naysmith (Labour, Bristol North West), Dr Bob Spink (Independent, Castle Point), Ian Stewart (Labour, Eccles), Graham Stringer (Labour, Manchester, Blackley), Dr Desmond Turner (Labour, Brighton Kemptown) and Rob Wilson (Conservative, Reading East).
Key highlights from the report state that although some geo-engineering techniques could be included in existing legislation, techniques such as solar radiation management/ stratospheric aerosol injection require that "new regulatory arrangements will have to be developed." This has by 2024 not occurred and should be considered along with the statement by the MET Office in the 1950's, regarding weather modification, that the government will have to exercise control of the technologies. The UK government has failed to introduce, over a 75 year period, any kind of stand alone weather & climate modification regulation. Such regulation means the public are informed before activities are carried out including the right to respond and environmental impact reports are attained. Currently, as long as basic regulation's relating to flight safety such as giving 'notice to airmen' or confirming what is distributed from 'platforms' falls to the ground within 5 years to avoid the build up of pollutants in the atmosphere are complied with, you can pretty much, do what you want regarding weather & climate modification in the UK.
The Science & Technology Committee report states that the public should be involved with the decision making process and creation of regulation and it should not be left to the government, alone, to decide what happens.
Over a 6 year period between 2016 and 2022 efforts were made by members of the public to introduce stand alone Weather & Climate Modification legislation via a white paper to be introduced into Parliament via a Judicial Review over decisions already taken by the government which included the reinforcing statements by the MET Office in the 50's and the Science and Technology Committee in 2010. When this reached the High Court of Appeal in London, the complainant was threatened with a Civil Restraint Order by the High Court forcing them to cease and desist in the case. As mentioned, no regulation currently exists in the UK.
2010 - SPICE - Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering
In September 2011, Cambridge University announced in a press statement that the SPICE geo-engineering experiment would be carried out in collaboration with the Universities of Bristol, Edinburgh and Oxford, together with Marshall Aerospace. The project began in October 2010.
The UK government funded experiment, which those of you that have followed David Keith’s or 'Make Sunsets' activity will recognise, consists of using balloon's (gondola's) to distribute sunlight reflective materials into the stratosphere. MSM articles explained the experiment. 'The Independent' newspaper reported in October 2011 how the project could result in 20 balloons, combined to equal the size of Wembley Stadium, being used to distribute particulates at an altitude of 20km.
The experiment was to be carried out in the early part of 2012 near Fakenham, Norfolk on the Eastern side of England. Members of the public contacted the RSPB and nature reserves in the area along with local media outlets in Norfolk and within days of those 'activist' activities the project was cancelled. Initially reported in the media in May 2012 as being cancelled due to funding issues from the private investors, it was announced soon after that the project was cancelled due to conflict of interest issues and concerns with the 'patents' being used. No mention was made of the public complaints or objections via awareness raising activities. The experiment was moved to New Mexico, USA under the management of David Keith (formerly of Harvard, now at Chicago Uni as of 2023) and was carried out as planned in July 2012. According to 'the Guardian' newspaper in August 2018, the SPICE project in the UK was abandoned in 2015 after research showed that geo-engineering would have an adverse effect on agriculture. Hugh Hunt, the acting director of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge Uni claimed in the Australian ABC news outlet, August 2020, that 'his' SPICE project was cancelled due to the 'Oxford Principles' on geo-engineering.
2015 - No 'D-Notice' applied on the UK media
A D-Notice order is when the military or government issue a black-out on a subject in the UK media, forbidding them from covering or reporting on a subject concerned. It is now called a Defence and Security Media Advisory. In August 2015, Air Vice-Marshal Andrew Vallance, the Secretary of the Defence & Security Media Advice Committee confirmed that there has never been, nor will there ever be any kind of D-Notice, whether daily or otherwise, given to the media on the subject of geo-engineering.
2019 to 2021 - Bath University - Electric Charge method
In January 2021 a paper was released titled: A "Demonstration of a Remotely Piloted Atmospheric Measurement and Charge Release Platform for Geo-Engineering", via the American Meteorological Society (AMS) website. It claimed that the electric charge method is an unexplored geo-engineering technique for modifying fogs, clouds and rainfall. This is of course a lie as the electric charge method is a well known technique and has been since the 1960's. It was developed in the 1960's in California, USA and was mentioned in the State funding report for weather modification, albeit as a primitive trial. Ionospheric Heaters are also classified within the electric charge method and scientists in the UAE have also worked on developing the method in 2017.
In May 2021, Bath Uni announced that its drone (UAV) based electric charge method platform had been tested in the UAE.
A FOIR response from Bath Uni in 2022 regarding their proof of concept tests carried out over the Bristol area confirms the 'legislation' arguments mentioned earlier in this article: "When the UAV flights took place in 2019 there was no requirement to make any public notifications or to obtain permission from any government organisation. Due to the size and flight status of the drone, the Civil Aviation Authority did not require any formal notification. Whilst there was no legal requirement to do so, the Uni of Bath notified Bristol Airport of its flights and obtained permission from the airport to fly. Further permissions were sought and obtained from relevant land owners."
The public were not informed about the experiments beforehand as there are no legal requirements obligating the university into public notifications.
2022 - Stratospheric Aerosol Transport and Nucleation (SATAN)
In March 2023 an interview was published by the MIT Technology Review website entitled: "Researchers launched a solar geo-engineering test flight in the UK. The experiment, largely designed to test equipment, took place despite deep concerns about the technology."
The project lead, Andrew Lockley, was clearly fuming due to information about his experiment being released. The experiments took place in September 2022 and involved releasing sulphur dioxide from a high altitude balloon, essentially copying the previously mentioned methods in this article. The Stratospheric Aerosol Transport and Nucleation (SATAN) experiments were released from a launch site in Buckinghamshire in South-East England. No public notifications were given beforehand.
You'll notice the lack of public notification to do with experiments carried out in the UK. This is because of the public backlash as proven by the SPICE experiment. David Keith, a leading geo-engineering advocate, stated after a cancelled experimental attempt in Sweden during 2020/2021 that “it is harder to find funding for projects due to the negative response from the public about such experiments”. Hence why researchers in the UK are keeping their experiments secret. They know the public are against what they want to do.
Source:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/ search : geo-engineering
The Regulation of Geo-Engineering report :
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/221/221.pdf
S.P.I.C.E.
https://antiweathermodification.weebly.com/spice---stratospheric-particle-injection-for-climate-engineering.html
Bath Uni - Electric Charge method
https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/atot/38/1/jtech-d-20-0092.1.xml
S.A.T.A.N.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/01/1069283/researchers-launched-a-solar-geoengineering-test-flight-in-the-uk-last-fall/
Ionospheric Heater - Wales
https://mst.nerc.ac.uk/DOCS/nerc-mstrf_finding-the-site.pdf
https://antiweathermodification.weebly.com/haarp-uk.html
UK
https://antiweathermodification.weebly.com/uk.html