Is Bill Gates Funding Efforts To Block The Sun?

[Andrew Lockley]

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gates-block-sun/

Claim

A project funded by Bill Gates "would help block out the sun."

Rating

Mostly False

Mostly False

About this rating

What's True

Since 2007, Bill Gates has funded research initiatives that, in part, provide grants for experiments related to solar radiation management — a form of geoengineering controversially proposed as a last-ditch solution to anthropogenic global warming. A Harvard experiment named SCoPEx is supported in part by these initiatives.

What's False

The project at issue in several sensationalized news stories, SCoPEx, is an experiment designed to collect data for the purpose of refining computer models that simulate solar radiation management, not to implement an actual test of the practice. The most the experiment would seek to do is release two kilograms (3.4 pounds) of non-toxic dust from a weather balloon 12 miles high in the sky.