Make Sunsets, Inc. was founded in October 2022 by Luke Iseman and Andrew Song and is based in Box Elder, South Dakota. The company aims to “create reflective clouds in the stratosphere” by releasing sulphur particles and claims that “1 gram of our clouds offsets the warming that 1 ton of CO₂ emissions creates for a year. After ~2 years, our clouds compost and settle back to Earth.” Balloons filled with helium and a small amount of SO2 are supposed to rise into the stratosphere, burst and release the SO2 particles. Make Sunsets aims to sell 'cooling credits' based on these flights, but the company admits that it has no way of knowing whether the balloons have reached the stratosphere and/or whether they have released the sulphur particles.
Make Sunsets has conducted (unauthorised) test flights with helium weather balloons and SO2 from Baja California (near La Ventana, Mexico), Reno (Nevada, USA) and in California, including San Francisco Bay. In January 2023, a month after the Ventana experiments became public knowledge, the Mexican government banned them [1] [2]. Since then, Make Sunset has been planning/conducting the experiments in the USA. [3]
Rogue Geoengineering Experiments
- Baja California (near La Ventana, Mexico) • April and in December 2022 [4]
- Reno, Nevada • February 2023 [5]
- San Francisco, California • April 21, 2023 [6]
But a new crisis has emerged. SilverLining, a pro-geoengineering environmental group, has gotten wind of Make Sunsets’ latest balloon flights, and put out a press release calling their cooling credits a “snake oil sales pitch” and asking U.S. authorities to stop them. Iseman is incensed. “I don’t understand,” he says as we drive west out of Reno on our way to retrieve the two balloons with tracking equipment. “They’re supposed to be advocating for this field.” [7]
Make Sunsets • Cooling Credits
By purchasing a Cooling Credit, your funds will be used to release at least 1 gram of our "clouds" into the stratosphere on your behalf, offsetting the warming effect of 1 ton of carbon dioxide for 1 year. We will share the fulfillment of your Cooling Credit after deployment on your account page.
Your purchase is refundable at any time pre-deployment.
If you or your company wants to offset more than 1,000 tons of CO2, please enter a quantity over 1,000 Cooling Credits, and an automatic discount will be applied. [8]
“I am forever a Boy Scout, lifetime artist, nocturnal programmer, music is my life, love is my religion, and I am the luckiest husband and father on Earth. I speak for the trees. I have a passion for mapping, magnets, and mysteries.”
About Jim Lee
