Dim sums? Loony left pay to dim the sun!

You need £50m to dim the sun? Sure!

I heard about this a few days back and, besides working on other posts, I needed time to process that sentence.

Not the coldest, but we live in probably the wettest, most overcast country in Europe. Certainly the BBC asked whether our weather was unique, pointing out that elements like temperature, wind and rain in Britain can all change hour by hour and day by day. That, continually, there is an extraordinary mix of atmospheric conditions battling it out.

And the labour party think you can control that – with a budget of £50 million.

And that if they could just control and counter our measily 1% contribution to CO₂ emission we’d save the world.

Huzzah for Net Zero! Huzzah for Ed Milliband! Huzzah for the loony left!
Now, I have a bridge to sell you…

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ignorant, I’m aware of cloud seeding. I’m also aware it was (wrongly it seems) blamed for flash flooding in Dubai

I’m also aware that money, at £1 a sapling would buy 50 million oak trees to replace our lost forests. And we KNOW they’ll absorb a tonne of carbon emmisions – and give back to nature without going into the pockets of ‘partners’!

Milliband the clown — Trees, looking at Milliband: “You plonker”

I think the idea is just another money tree scam. Even if it worked – which is highly unlikely in a country with weather as fickle as ours – what would be the true cost down the line. Pumping chemicals into the air, what could possibly go wrong!?

There’s any number of disaster movies that could answer that, but this story made me think of one in particular. It’s as if Ed Milliband watched the Geostorm movie and believed – like a true zeolot – that it was a documentary! That it was possible, and that the UK alone could do it.

Ed Milliband will save the day with project Geostorm! Huzzah!

Meanwhile, in the foreign office: Lammy: “Did someone mention dim sum? I’m so hungry!

Reeves: “Ummm, £50 million Lammy? To dim the sun?”

Lammy: “Dim the… No, I ordered dim sum, for the Labour party conference. Didn’t I?”

Reeves: Still… £50 milllion – on dim sum?

Lammy: Tax payers are covering it.

Rachel Reeves: Fair enough

New Labour scandal!
Foreign Secretary runs up £50m tab in Hong Kong restaurant, causing a diplomatic incident as they are forced to boot him out the country.

Mockery aside, here’s the science

(There will be more mockery!)

Geoengineering is controversial and some previous planned outdoor experiments have been cancelled after strong opposition.

Most geoengineering proposals aim to block sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface, for example by launching clouds of reflective particles into the atmosphere or using seawater sprays to make clouds brighter.

a) Stratospheric aerosol injection: Airplanes release tiny aerosol particles that reflect light back into space.
b) Cirrus cloud thinning: The least understood method, seeding thin cirrus clouds in the upper troposphere with ice nuclei could reduce their lifespan and increase cooling.
c) Marine cloud brightening: Boats release aerosol particles that increase the reflectivity of low clouds.

However, solar radiation management (SRM) could have serious unintended consequences, such as shifting rains vital to food production

Aria’s programme was recently called a “dangerous distraction” from cutting emissions by senior scientists, who called SRM “barking mad” and akin to treating cancer with aspirin

(Guardian): UK scientists are to launch outdoor geoengineering experiments as part of a £50m government-funded programme.

LBC went with: experts have warned of possible unintended consequences including potentially catastrophic disruptions of weather patterns.

The Telegraph locked their story behind a paywall. Most other’s just repeated versions of the Guardian article, but with extra layers of “Aaaah, global warming, we’re all going to die!”
Which takes us to:

Sp!ked (2021): Climate Derangement Syndrome

The Express: The insane new £50m plan to ‘dim the sunlight’ across the UK
The plans will make the UK one of the world’s biggest funders of geoengineering research.

Gareth Wyn Jones (on Facebook) : Unbelievable. Sun dimming now ??

Happily, for a cynic like me, Newsweek went with Reported Experiments to ‘Dim the Sun’ Spark Alarm: ‘Never Seen a Film?’
“The U.K. government’s reported plans to allow experiments that could “dim the sun” has sparked comparisons to apocalyptic action film plots and villainous schemes cooked up by cartoon characters.”

Hmm… a villainous scheme cooked up by cartoon character…
Milliband: “I’d have got away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids”
“Scooby snack?”

I thought of this one too:

The proposed experiment has been met with mixed reactions.

Utah Senator Mike Lee said on X: “On a scale of one to ten, how much do you trust the UK to ‘dim the Sun’ without causing problems?”

“Montgomery Burns approves,” wrote one X user in response to an article about the plans, a reference to the unscrupulous billionaire businessman in The Simpsons, who in one famous episode of the animated comedy, attempts to block out the sun.