27. Luke Iseman on his for-profit solar geoengineering venture - Make Sunsets

Challenging Climate

Luke Iseman is the founder of Make Sunsets, a recently launched startup that is selling “cooling credits” on the promise that they will release sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere using weather balloons. In this episode, we discuss Make Sunset’s mission to “substantially lower global temperatures,” the details of their offering, the technical challenges for verifying their cooling credits, and the potential political repercussions of their efforts
Links:

Make Sunsets official website: https://makesunsets.com/

Make Sunsets contested cooling calculations: https://makesunsets.com/blogs/news/calculating-cooling

Luke’s blog post from just before he launched this effort, “Geoengineering Now”: https://www.dirtnail.com/2022/04/04/geoengineering-now/

Some reactions to Make Sunsets:

Ted Parson’s essay on Make Sunsets, “A Dangerous Disruption”: https://legal-planet.org/2023/01/02/a-dangerous-disruption/

David Keith on why not to commercialize geoengineering: https://twitter.com/DKeithClimate/status/1608085360927457281

Gwynne Dyer’s comment in Stuff: https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/130909204/balloon-goes-up-on-geoengineering-sulfur-scam

Another podcast interview with Luke Iseman by Reviewer 2 Does Geoengineering: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Fr15fdX20qyyfVX8VCF3Q

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Chapters

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. Luke's background (00:05:13)

3. Make sunsets objective and approach (00:07:17)

4. Cooling credits and carbon offsets (00:12:19)

5. Do the numbers add up? (00:17:24)

6. Trust and the lack of verification (00:20:25)

7. Funding and investment (00:26:10)

8. Patents and innovation (00:28:39)

9. Why Mexico and regulations (00:32:50)

10. Luke's vision of the politics (00:35:03)

11. How make sunsets could grow (00:37:51)

12. Relationship between cooling and carbon offsets (00:40:12)

13. Will make sunset's political impact be like ocean fertilization companies? (00:45:32)

14. Is there a better way to advance solar geoengineering? (00:51:55)

15. Why should we take Make Sunsets seriously? (00:54:54)

16. Might Make Sunsets make the political situation worse? (00:57:27)

17. What are Luke's hopes for the coming year? (00:58:40)

18. Ending (00:59:28)