The SilverLining Spotlight - March 24, 2023
Dear Friends,
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. Earlier this month, more than 100 climate scientists released a letter affirming the importance of responsible scientific research on the potential for solar radiation management to reduce climate risks and impacts. The United Nations Environment Programme released a landmark report on solar radiation modification. These were covered extensively in the media amidst increasing global attention on this topic.
As climate intervention conversations take place, the world continues to delay the crucial work of reducing emissions, underscored by the new United Nations’ IPCC synthesis report. Disaster risks are rising, with increasingly devastating effects on vulnerable people and parts of the world. To support these concerns, SilverLining collaborates and engages with stakeholders from the Global South in looking for better options for a safe near-term climate than those available today. This includes two new members of our international team, Irfan Ullah from Pakistan and Lydia Dai from China.
At SilverLining, one of our priorities is advancing a roadmap of research on climate intervention in the United States to provide open information and support scientific cooperation and equitable decision-making globally. Our recently released report and dialogue on a Volts podcast describe why this is needed and how it might work. We deeply appreciate your support for us in these efforts.
Best Regards,
Kelly Wanser
Executive Director, SilverLining
Around the World
Interest in research on climate intervention is growing, including in Global South regions severely impacted by climate-linked disasters. As Pakistan attempts to recover from devastating floods, SilverLining joined Pakistani experts at an event hosted by Bacha Khan University and Sustainability Week Pakistan in a dialogue centered on the possibility of climate intervention for preventing “super-flood” events in the future. The SilverLining team also attended the VIII Regional Platform of the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) in Uruguay in a dialogue aimed at the world’s most climate-vulnerable populations, described in an op-ed by team member Ricardo Pineda Guzman for Le Monde Diplomatique. Mexico’s concerns about climate intervention activity elevated the importance of responsible scientific research to provide open information to society.
Scientists Speak Out
A letter signed by more than 100 physical and biological climate scientists called for responsible research to evaluate the potential for SRM to reduce climate risks and impacts, to understand and minimize the risks of SRM approaches, and to identify the information required for governance. There has been widespread media coverage of the recently released letter. Read more about it in E&E and The Verge.
Podcast: A Dialogue with David Roberts
Kelly Wanser was featured in a recent episode of the highly regarded Volts podcast with David Roberts. The discussion centered on SilverLining’s report, which describes an ambitious roadmap for research, investment, and global scientific cooperation to improve society’s ability to predict and respond to near-term climate change and assess climate interventions.
Report: Near-term Climate Risk and Intervention
In a report released last month, SilverLining called for a $13B “Climate Safety Initiative” to deliver an ambitious roadmap of climate research over 5 years. As the report highlights, the magnitude of escalating climate threats -- particularly for the world’s most vulnerable people and ecosystems -- warrants a concerted effort to improve projections of near-term climate impacts and to assess the potential for climate interventions to reduce them.
Upcoming Events
Kelly Wanser will join the Economist’s Oliver Morton for a discussion of interventions in the cryosphere at Ocean Visions Summit 2023, April 5 in Atlanta and online. Register here.
"How To Unscrew A Planet” will air on CNN on April 23. Tune in to watch the documentary, which will include a segment featuring Kelly Wanser.
SilverLining’s Global Youth Initiative is hosting its 2nd Youth Summit on Near-term Climate Risk and Intervention, May 3-4. Contact us for information.
Kelly Wanser will join scientist Ken Caldeira in conversation at the LongNow and Anthropocene event, “The Climate Parables”, May 11-12 in San Francisco and online.
SilverLining will present at the EPRI Energy and Climate Research Seminar, May 11 in Washington D.C.
Kelly Wanser will speak at TEDx Gateway, June 4 in Mumbai, India.
The SilverLining team will be featured at the TED Countdown Summit 2023, July 11-14 in Detroit, MI.
Related Content
