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The earth should not be a climate laboratory

  • Publication Date | April 21, 2023
  • Document Type | Letter to the Editor
  • Programmes | Climate Change
  • Issues | Adaptation, Biodiversity, Development, International Treaties
  • Tags | Convention on Biological Diversity, geoengineering
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Earth Day on 22nd April this year coincides with the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri.  As families gather with friends to celebrate, we must count our blessings that Mother Earth has bestowed upon us, which we often take for granted. Mother Earth’s health and well-being is vital for our continued survival and sustenance.

As we witness the alarming onset of climate change impacts and warnings grow louder for speedier and more urgent action across the globe to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius from the pre-industrial era, there have been proliferating calls for manipulating the Earth system with very risky and dangerous solar geo-engineering technologies which are unknown to many, including governments.

The irresponsible idea behind such speculative technologies is that we can continue to plunder, over-consume and pollute our Earth as it is possible to engineer our way out of the current problems.

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As highlighted in a recent opinion piece in the New York Times (April 18, My Continent is not your giant climate laboratory’ by Chukwumerije Okereke, from a Nigerian University), one such solar engineering technology, called solar radiation management, gathering the most attention is to use balloons or aircraft to spray large quantities of aerosols — tiny particles of, for example, sulfur dioxide or engineered nanoparticles — into the stratosphere to dim the sunlight. 

As pointed out in the article, ‘other proposed techniques include covering deserts with plastic; genetically engineering plants to have brighter, more reflective leaves; creating or making clouds whiter; and deploying millions of mirrors in space. The point of all of them is to counter warming by reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the planet and reflecting it back to the stratosphere.’

As highlighted, instead of making investments in developing countries supporting renewable energy and other genuine climate solutions, attention is being diverted by funding geoengineering researchers, particularly those in the United States, with support from Bill Gates and philanthropists from Silicon Valley, while George Soros has recently announced his intention to back solar geoengineering projects in the Arctic. 

In fact, recently, an American start-up called Make Sunsets, launched balloons from Mexico to inject sulfur into the atmosphere with the claim this would offset carbon emissions. It seems that the Mexican government was unaware of the exercise until after the event, and officials swiftly announced a ban on solar geoengineering activities. 

Developing country governments are being courted by irresponsible researchers and companies to become testing grounds for such dangerous technologies. 

To counter these moves and to raise public attention, more than 400 senior climate scientists and scholars from around the world have called for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering, which hopefully results in a ban on real-world research on this technology.

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There is in fact a de facto moratorium under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity on the development and deployment of these technologies and we in Malaysia too must be on the alert and work with other nations to prevent becoming testing grounds, with seductive promises of making money. 

We join the call of concerned scientists for immediate political action from governments, the United Nations, and other actors to prevent the normalisation of solar geoengineering as a climate policy option. 

Governments and the UN must assert effective political control and restrict the development of solar geoengineering technologies at planetary scale. 

As highlighted by the scientists’ fundamental concerns include the following:

‘First, the risks of solar geoengineering are poorly understood and can never be fully known. Impacts will vary across regions, and there are uncertainties about the effects on weather patterns, agriculture, and the provision of basic needs of food and water.

Second, speculative hopes about the future availability of solar geoengineering technologies threaten commitments to mitigation and can disincentivize governments, businesses, and societies to do their utmost to achieve decarbonization or carbon neutrality as soon as possible. The speculative possibility of future solar geoengineering risks becoming a powerful argument for industry lobbyists, climate denialists, and some governments to delay decarbonization policies.

Third, the current global governance system is unfit to develop and implement the far-reaching agreements needed to maintain fair, inclusive, and effective political control over solar geoengineering deployment. 

In short, solar geoengineering deployment cannot be governed globally in a fair, inclusive, and effective manner. We therefore call for immediate political action from governments, the United Nations, and other actors to prevent the normalisation of solar geoengineering as a climate policy option. Governments and the UN should take effective political control and restrict the development of solar geoengineering technologies before it is too late.’ 

Specifically, we also call for an International Non-Use Agreement on Solar Geoengineering. 

SAM echoes the call that our Earth should not be a climate laboratory! Selamat Hari Raya!

Meenakshi Raman
President

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Testimonials

Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah satu badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang telah sekian lama berjuang mempertahan kelestarian alam. Ia juga mendidik masyarakat tentang pentingnya kebersamaan dalam pemikiran dan tindakan agar alam ini dapat kita wariskan kepada generasi hadapan dalam keadaan yang elok dan terpelihara. Dalam pada itu juga SAM giat membantu golongan nelayan pantai dalam memperjuangkan hak-hak mereka sehinggalah tertubuhnya Persatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING). Nelayan pantai sepenuh masa ini dididik oleh SAM sehingga mereka mampu memainkan peranan sebagai pemimpin nelayan yang meneruskan kesinambungan memperjuangkan hak-hak nelayan pantai lainnya. Sebagai contoh SAM telah berjaya menyedarkan masyarakat nelayan keperluan menjaga hutan paya bakau untuk kebaikan hasil tangkapan nelayan itu sendiri.
Jamaluddin Mohamad Bualik
Jamaluddin Mohamad BualikPersatuan Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Jaringan Nelayan Pantai Malaysia (JARING)
During the 1980s, I used to read about the Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) in the news. After retirement, some time in 2001, while lazing around, I read news about the construction of a carbon in leach plant using sodium cyanide to extract gold in Bukit Koman. My friends and I visited CAP and we were introduced to SAM and her legal team. We discussed the details of filing a case against the gold mining company and the department of environment with Ms Meenakshi Raman and her legal team. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship between lawyers from SAM and many of us from Bukit Koman. We had many ups and downs in our struggle to shut down the gold mine that was causing a nuisance in our village. But, as a community we never gave up because SAM had our backs.
Hue Fui How
Hue Fui HowSecretary, Bukit Koman Ban Cyanide in Goldmining Action Committee (BCAC)
Sahabat Alam Malaysia adalah sebuah NGO yang memperjuangkan nasib masyarakat luar bandar khasnya. SAM menerima aduan-aduan masyarakat dan menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapi. SAM telah mewujudkan ramai aktivis-aktivis sosial dan alam sekitar. Pada era 1980 dan 90an SAM sangat dihormati oleh masyarakat dan agensi kerajaan. Apabila media sosial menguasai maklumat maka SAM pun terkesan dan masalah masyarakat terus disalurkan dengan pelbagai cara. SAM perlu mewujudkan aktivis-aktivis pelapis yang muda untuk terus membantu masyarakat. SAM juga perlu membuat perubahan supaya banyak turun kelapangan dan jangan mengharapkan laporan media sahaja. Tingkatkan prestasi sebagaimana pada zaman kegemilangan SAM di era 80-90an.
Che Ani Mt Zain
Che Ani Mt Zain
SAM taught me the importance of social activism and the role it plays in upholding the rights of people and the protection of the environment. In my experience, SAM has never hesitated to speak up in defence of people and their environment, and has gone the extra mile to champion their rights, by helping communities take their battles to the higher ups and even to the courts.
Jessica Binwani
Jessica BinwaniPublic/Private Interest Lawyer
Semenjak kami kenal SAM, banyak pengalaman dan pengetahuan yg kami dapat. Kami telah belajar cara membuat baja asli daripada SAM. Semenjak itu, bermulalah minat kami dalam aktiviti pertanian. Dengan memperolehi kemahiran dalam membuat baja asli dan penanaman lestari, kami juga telah dapat menambahkan pendapatan sampingan kami. Ini lebih baik daripada tanah kami terbiar dan tidak diusahakan. Terima kasih SAM kerana sudi memberi bantuan dan tunjuk ajar kepada Persatuan kami.
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My journey with SAM started when her community organisers took me to the meet the paddy farmers of Kedah, connecting my growing interest in environmental law with our people who struggle to work the land in the face of pollution, replacement of traditional seeds with commercial hybrids and their accompanying chemical package of fertilisers and weedicides. I then had the honour to work with SAM in the struggle for the rights of the native communities of Sarawak, in defence of their forests from massive logging and destructive mega-projects. In every issue that SAM takes up, she combines rigorous research with the realities and voices of the communities to advocate for policies and laws that care for people and nature. From the courts to the elected legislators to policy makers and implementers and to the United Nations, SAM walks side by side with the communities in Malaysia. How can I not be inspired by the vision and passion of the generations of women and men who coalesce to form SAM?
Chee Yoke Ling
Chee Yoke Lingstudent of SAM, Executive Director of Third World Network, SAM’s sister organisation

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Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Headquarters)
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11400 Penang,
Malaysia
Tel: +604 827 6930
Fax: +604 827 6932

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98058 Marudi,
Baram, Sarawak,
Malaysia
Tel & Fax: +6085 756 973

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Sahabat Alam Malaysia
Sahabat Alam Malaysia - Member of Friends of the Earth International

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Headquarters)
No. 1, Jalan Joki, 11400 Penang,
Malaysia
Tel: +604 827 6930
Fax: +604 827 6932

Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Marudi Office)
129A, First Floor,
Jalan Tuanku Taha,
P.O.Box 216,
98058 Marudi, Baram, Sarawak,
Malaysia
Tel & Fax: +6085 758 973

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