andyjsong

Time to deploy sulfate aerosols in the stratosphere https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/73f7f362-9890-4375-9a92-1...

related and addresses your concerns from one of the leading scientists in stratospheric aerosol injection: https://davidkeith.earth/stardust-is-tackling-the-wrong-prob...

I think you answered your own question. But to clarify, we applied for SBIRs, but were never awarded, yet.

For those who want a live example:

MakeSunsets has raised ~$1.8M from angels + VCs and another ~$133K in Cooling Credit sales over the past 12 months from individuals [1]. These purchases directly fund stratospheric aerosol injection — bringing awareness and cooling the Earth.

We’ve applied to SBIRs, explored DAOs, crowdfunding platforms, and are in conversations with family offices and UHNWI.

Most of our closed deals? They’ve come from Twitter and Substack. The key: talking directly to decision-makers — not committees.

[1] Climate dads: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0685/0042/2976/files/Make_...

I just finished reading Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson.

What took you so long? :) The book came out in 2021. He's even written about Make Sunsets in his substack: https://x.com/MakeSunsets/status/1871734075008115081

Augment and repair are not the right words here. Since the Industrial Revolution, we've already been cooling the Earth by influencing radiative forcing; we're just doing it the worst way possible, by applying sunscreen at the wrong altitude (troposphere) and using too much of it.

Here's further reading if you'd like to learn more https://www.keepcool.co/p/no-one-is-coming-to-save-us-time-t...

We're doing deliberate tests with sulfur dioxide instead of CaCO3, more info here: https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/so2-injection

Great, we conduct artificial stratovolcanic eruptions in NorCal every month: https://makesunsets.com/products/join-the-next-balloon-launc...

https://www.economist.com/interactive/asia/2025/05/28/if-ind...

TL;DR India should be hotter, but due to sulfur dioxide emissions at ground level the rate of warming is a third less. For reference, the current rate of warming is ~0.25C per decade.

Here's a good primer: https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/so2-injection

Risk vs. Benefits: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2025/01/ma...

Or the scientist Bill Gates calls when he wants to learn about climate change: https://makesunsets.com/blogs/news/optional-climate-change

Termination shock is already happening as we've been decreasing the amount of SO2 in the air we breathe. Peak global SO2 emissions were 131 million tons in 1979. Now it's 69 million as of 2022. We've been removing the sunscreen that unintentionally cooled the Earth, and one of the reasons why 2023 and 2024 were the hottest in recorded history.

If you want to understand the risks of doing vs. not doing SAI check out this recently published paper: https://climate.uchicago.edu/insights/comparing-the-benefits...

The next step is to redeploy the SO2 that has unintentionally cooled Earth and do it better in the stratosphere with a fractional amount that we've tolerated since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Here's an article I recently wrote if you want to understand from a macro-level: https://www.keepcool.co/p/no-one-is-coming-to-save-us-time-t...

The last point about "fossil fuels can continue" is also called moral hazard. Regardless of SAI or not, we're going to keep using whatever is the cheapest and accessible fuel we have available, and right now, it's hydrocarbons pulled from the ground. We've already gotten good at recklessly warming our planet and unintentionally cooling it, so we might as well get good at cooling intentionally.

If you think there is a chance we're going to start deploying stratospheric aerosol injection, might as well get good at it, if you want to help scale up deployments: https://makesunsets.com/products/join-the-next-balloon-launc...

Thanks for sharing the link! The article focuses on Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB), an unscalable method of solar radiation management. MCB would require thousands of autonomous boats (ideally running without fossil fuels) to locate suitable low-altitude ocean clouds and spray them with finely misted saltwater to increase their reflectivity. At best, this method might achieve localized cooling over ocean areas, but its net impact on global temperatures remains uncertain—scientists are still debating whether it would result in overall cooling or even exacerbate warming in some regions.

The specific experiment mentioned in the article was halted due to a lack of community engagement. The organizers failed to inform or invite the local mayor to the deployment event, leading to public backlash when residents learned about it from the New York Times. Much of the misunderstanding came from a perception that the experiment involved risky technology, though in reality, it was as simple as using a patio mister mounted on a retired warship.

What I was referencing, however, is Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), which differs significantly from MCB in both the type of aerosol used (typically sulfur dioxide, SO₂) and the location of the injection (the stratosphere, rather than the lower atmosphere). If you're interested in learning more about SAI, here's an excellent primer: https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/so2-injection

It's not banned, where are you getting this information? We've deployed 124 times for our customers mostly in Northern California. If you want to learn more: https://makesunsets.com/pages/new-faq

There's only one thing we can do today to delay it before we burn, enough to solve the problem: SO2 injection

They will probably profit from the solution regardless of where you decide to send your support. For example, one of the byproducts of oil refining is sulfur. If you burn sulfur in the presence of oxygen will turn into SO2. Then you can put up in the stratosphere and cool Earth until the last drop of petrochemical is burned or alternative energy is close to free and as accessible as oil and gas.

Dr. David W. Fahey, Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory revealed that studies show sulfur aerosols from stratospheric aerosol injection could impact the ozone layer, but not catastrophically. The 1991 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption demonstrated the ozone layer's resilience after temporarily cooling the planet by 0.5°C. Despite uncertainties, these findings suggest geoengineering methods like SAI could be explored without causing irreversible damage to the ozone layer.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/climate/ozone-hole-restor...

As a co-founder of Make Sunsets, I'd like to clarify the role of SO2 in climate control. SO2 is considered "easily removable" because, when combined with water, it forms sulfuric acid and precipitates out. This mechanism partially explains why 2023 was the hottest year on record; the EPA's stringent regulations on SOx emissions have significantly reduced the aerosols in our troposphere, removing critical reflective materials.

The impact of SO2, including its effectiveness and atmospheric residence time, varies based on its deployment location (latitude, longitude, altitude), concentration, and particle size.

For instance, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 regulations have reduced SO2 emissions from cargo ships in the troposphere, leading to decreased respiratory illnesses near ports and less acid rain. However, this reduction in SO2 has also warmed ocean shipping lanes, prompting discussions about reintroducing sulfur into the troposphere. [1]

Deploying SO2 in the stratosphere, above most of the atmospheric water vapor and where winds reach speeds of 200kph, allows it to spread globally and remain airborne longer (1 to 3 years). This higher placement necessitates less frequent applications for the desired reflective effect. The 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo demonstrated this, injecting 20 million tons of SO2 into the stratosphere [2], cooling the Earth by 0.5°C and, according to some models, temporarily reversing decades of warming.

Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) is likened to Earth's sunscreen, [3] a temporary measure to reflect the Sun's energy and mitigate warming while we address the larger challenge of removing over a trillion tons of greenhouse gases emitted since the 1850s and transitioning away from fossil fuels.

Climate change demands immediate action, and SAI offers us the critical time needed to live in a world with fewer catastrophic climate events.

[1] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vGEDuEn6uikvGZpR9oZplPPh...

[2] For reference, estimates suggest that global SO2 emissions were around 131 million tons in 1970 and continued to rise, peaking at approximately 150 million tons by the late 1980s in the troposphere.

[3] https://twitter.com/MakeSunsets/status/1741336520366444822

OP here, I'd really like to understand why people are writing these comments. Is anyone willing to hop on a video call and stop hiding behind their keyboards? Here's a link to do just that: https://calendly.com/andrew-makesunsets/30min

Cool regards, Andrew Song Co-founder of Make Sunsets

Maybe: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/philhaslett_tendies-activity-...

This one balloon releasing reflective clouds in the stratosphere is the equivalent of 38,636 fully-grown trees that last for a year.

That sounds about right, I took a domestic flight from SFO to PSP this week. I had a full-sized tube of toothpaste going there, with no issues, and they took it away coming back.

Co-founder of Make Sunsets here, check out our FAQ which answers all your questions: https://makesunsets.com/pages/faq

Yes, more trees, but still not enough, here is a handy guide on the different solutions and consequences: https://www.roadto10gigatons.com/

Carbon sequestration is promising, but still years away. We need to start looking at stop gap solutions that buy us more time.

I wish you were right, that people would actually come together and get things done. But again... more people are worried about if they can feed their families than catastrophic climate events might happen in the future. Global warming is still on the back burner for most people, until it's too late and they only care when their house goes underwater, burns, etc.

There is a land war in Europe, what makes you think the world can "come together" if we should or should not experiment with stratospheric aerosol injection? Most likely what will happen is the US or some other developed nation will unilaterally decide we need to do this without any governance, and they will choose us as the deployment partner.

Instead of that rhetoric, let's hear you stand up for people coming together and getting things done

So far our customers have been law profs, SW engineers, IT professionals, accountants, retired pharma exec, students, and other white-collar jobs. This supports my theory that only the people who have time to worry about global warming is a privileged class, and this comment thread further proves that we have the luxury to discuss such topics.

Just read some academic papers and realize that anything we're doing right now to reverse global is a little too late. CDR, DAC, fusion, planting trees, solar, wind, nuclear, and nations coming together to decide we need to deploy stratospheric aerosol injection are all decades away while the planet warms 0.1C every decade.

We deeply respect what scientists have been sounding alarm for years, but more people are worried about putting food on table than catastrophic weather events that might happen in the future.

Totally open to hearing another way to slow down global warming that isn't as fucking crazy as dimming the sun, but we're all addicted to burning dead dinos. Unless we put the environment over profits and scale up CO2 sucking tech, our children will have incredibly shitty lives.

Correct, completely insignificant, this is our "hello world" deployment, but we're pushing to prod and skipping staging. As more people buy, we will increase our payload and measure what we can. It's extreme, but if you have a better solution like scaling up fusion tomorrow, we're kinda fucked if we don't cool the planet.

We deploy 20km up. We spoke with people at Project Loon and the only orgs that are in that space is the military and they don't want you to know they're up there.

Also, Luke is not a Mexican, he's as gringo as they come, but he's learning to speak Spanish.

Andrew Song, Co-Founder of Make Sunsets here.

Why did they choose Mexico? They couldn't get away with it in the US, so it's ok to do experiments with the atmosephere of the people of Mexico? After they were forced to stop,

We chose Mexico as our initial launch site because deployment in the tropics have greater cooling per gram via increased particle residence time [1] (another source)[2]. Luke also bought land in Mexico a year ago prior to starting Make Sunsets to build his primary residence. The company was incorporated in October 2022. The US/Mexico does not have a ban on deploying sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere, if there was, all commercial air flights would be banned as well. Here is the original press release from the Mexican government: https://www.gob.mx/semarnat/prensa/la-experimentacion-con-ge... and our response: https://makesunsets.com/blogs/news/mexico

[1] https://presentations.copernicus.org/EGU21/EGU21-12131_prese...

[2] https://www.pnnl.gov/sites/default/files/media/file/Sensitiv...