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SilverLining Announces $20.5 Million in Funding to Advance its Governance and Equity Initiatives on Near-Term Climate Risk and Climate Intervention
SilverLining announces $20.5 million in funding from leading climate foundations: Quadrature Climate Foundation, Pritzker Innovation Fund, 2040 Foundation, Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, and Casey & Family Foundation. Building on five years of impact working successfully across political and societal divides, the funding will support SilverLining in its core governance, equity, and engagement initiatives over three years.
New Climate Studies and Public Engagement Center launch in the San Francisco Bay Area
The Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) Program, an open collaboration of atmospheric scientists and other experts to study how clouds respond to particles — also called aerosols — in the atmosphere, today initiated new climate studies and launched the Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement (CAARE) facility at the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate located in Alameda, California.
SilverLining Applauds Discussions on Climate Intervention Research at the UN Environment Assembly
The Sixth Session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) in Kenya is concluding today. A significant topic of the international convening was a proposed resolution to establish a panel to review scientific and societal considerations on a prominent form of rapid climate intervention: releasing particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight or alter the properties of clouds, also known as solar radiation modification (SRM).
SilverLining - 5 Years of Impact: Scientific Research
SilverLining is celebrating its five-year anniversary. At this milestone, we are reflecting on our progress across the many initiatives that collectively deliver against our mission of ensuring a safe near-term climate.
SilverLining’s R3OC Rapid Response Observing Campaign
On December 18th, a volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula began an extended eruption. We are thinking of everyone impacted by the eruption and wishing for safety for residents, first responders, and the community. While the eruption is disruptive and dangerous, it is also a powerful natural experiment for the study of the effects of aerosols on clouds, atmosphere and climate.
SilverLining Spotlight: COP28
Emerging from the global climate summit, COP28, the world is at a pivotal moment. Progress was made, including major commitments to reduce the super-polluting greenhouse gases that cause exorbitant near-term warming and commitments for Loss and Damage funds to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of warming that they did not cause. But as the climate experiences record extremes and approaches dangerous thresholds for warming, enormous work remains. With increasing acknowledgement that targets cannot be met, we now have a moral imperative to invest in research on climate interventions to assess their potential to reduce harm.
Climate intervention requires international research and the Global South has contributions to make
Challenging times are ahead for all of us who call this small blue planet home. The planet will continue warming due to emissions already in the atmosphere at least for the next 40 years even if we stop polluting right now, and yet emissions continue to rise. Tragically, we are in a place where emission reductions are not advancing fast enough and we don't have any indication that our elected leaders are ready to step up to the challenge. In this context, we’ll have to rely on human ingenuity and our unprecedented problem solving capacity to protect our common future. All options must be on the table.
Reflections from ARCTIC MOMENTUM in Finland: Entering a New Paradigm
Recently, the SilverLining team had the privilege to participate in and support a remarkable event held by youth-led Operaatio Arktis in Helsinki, Finland.
Empowering Youth for Climate Intervention: Insights from the 2023 Global Youth Summit on Near-term Climate Risks and Interventions
The recent Sixth Assessment (AR6) synthesis report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints a stark reality - the world is hurtling towards surpassing the critical 1.5°C global warming threshold. The imperative to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels is not merely a statistic, but a safeguard against an array of catastrophic impacts.
The SilverLining Spotlight - August 30, 2023
With deadly landslides in India, floods in China, heat extremes from Morocco to Japan, tropical storms in California, and devastating fires in Maui, we appear to have entered a more dangerous and uncertain phase of climate change.
SilverLining comment on the proposed “AGU Ethical Framework Principles on Climate Intervention Research”
We are supportive of the concerns driving the AGU’s Ethics Framework effort; but we are concerned that the deficiencies in the draft document and the process by which it is being developed pose risks to the generation of scientific evidence on climate interventions, to scientific independence and objectivity, and to its own stated goals of transparency, inclusiveness and justice.
In the climate red zone, the US and EU are considering urgent interventions
Brown skies over Europe and North America from Canadian wildfires and record “hot” North Atlantic seas are signs that we have reached a new level of climate risk — one that threatens the well-being of nearly everyone on Earth.
Cooling credits: Sold as a “cool” solution to climate change, buyers (and everyone) should beware
Carbon credits have come under fire recently, as regulators, analysts and media take a closer look to see if and how well these credits represent actual benefits for climate.
The SilverLining Spotlight - March 24, 2023
We hope you’re having a wonderful start to spring. Climate intervention conversations have accelerated this year and this trend is on track to continue.
Scientific research is key to tackling the climate crisis.
Lhe leaders of Latin America meet this week (February 28 – March 2) in Punta del Este, Uruguay to participate in the VIII Regional Platform of the UNDRR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction).
Climate intervention research: An insurance policy for near-term climate risks
Climate change is one of the most critical challenges facing humanity. It currently presents an overwhelming disaster risk for which we currently lack sufficient responses.
Climate intervention: an option for Global South to reduce near-term climate risk?
With nearly 36.3 billion tonnes of CO2 estimated to have been released into the atmosphere in 2021 alone, it came as no surprise the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest synthesis report on climate science projected that the earth’s surface temperature will increase over the current century under all assessed emission scenarios.
Beyond “Geoengineering” to Emergency Medicine for Climate
Sixty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee sent him a report on restoring the quality of our environment. It projected – with remarkable accuracy – the effects of rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
Reflecting Sunlight Could Ensure Human Safety on a Warming Planet
Earth has a 50-50 chance of warming 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in the next five years, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization.
Council on Foreign Relations: Reflecting Sunlight to Reduce Climate Risk: Priorities for Research and Global Cooperation
As you may have seen in the news, the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s recent global assessment report found that human activity is driving an increase in medium- to large-scale disasters, many of which are fueled by climate.