Deeply reported story on Stardust

[H simmens]



Some weeks ago I posted a detailed article about the Israeli United States SRM startup Stardust that generated interest on the list. 

Just published by Politico a couple of days ago is a lengthy and extremely interesting follow up article providing additional detail about the company and its plans to ramp up with a goal of beginning deployment in a decade. 

According to the article there is a substantial behind the scenes effort underway to create an appropriate regulatory framework to enable testing and ultimately deployment to advance. Apropos of what Robert Tulip has been advocating there is also mention of using the ozone treaty as a model for this effort. 

Lots of outreach has occurred to prominent SRM researchers and policy experts (with NDA‘s) and substantial resources have been directed towards behind-the-scenes lobbying in the United States and perhaps elsewhere. 

As was mentioned in the previous article Stardust has raised substantial resources in the neighborhood of $75 million from venture capital funds including one with a former Canadian Prime Minister. 

The article focuses on the role of Janos Pasztor - who along with Ted Parson highlighted one of our more important regular meetings last year on cooling governance - as the former consultant to Stardust and his perspective on the company. 

I think it’s fair to say that what Stardust is doing will have more influence on the prospects for cooling deployment - for better or worse - than the rest of the cooling NGO / University SRM ecosystem put together. 

Personally I am becoming increasingly convinced that the efforts of Stardust are likely to have a positive influence. 

Herb

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/11/21/stardust-geoengineering-janos-pasztor-regulations-00646414

Herb Simmens
Author of A Climate Vocabulary of the Future

“A SciencePoem and an Inspiration.” Kim Stanley Robinson
@herbsimmens
HerbSimmens.com

[Robert Chris]

Thanks Herb.  Given the message I sent a few minutes ago, wouldn't it be wonderful if I was forced to eat my words!

For me to become a believer I have to see 'Yes we can!' messages emerging from international lawyers concerning the sharing of SRM benefits and harms from testing through to deployment.  The technology will be the easiest piece of the pie.

There are also crucial questions about whatever happens in parallel with decarbonisation.

Regards

Robert

---

From: healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of H simmens <hsim...@gmail.com>
Sent: 23 November 2025 16:03
To: healthy-planet-action-coalition <healthy-planet-...@googlegroups.com>; Planetary Restoration <planetary-...@googlegroups.com>; Climate Alliance Healthy <healthy-clim...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [HPAC] Deeply reported story on Stardust

 

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[rob...@rtulip.net]

Herb & all

 

This article is nearly 10,000 words, very long, detailed and informative.  I have now read it. 

 

Thanks Herb for mentioning my proposal for an Albedo Accord.  I see firms like Stardust as having an essential place as service providers within this ecosystem, as part of a Montreal Protocol model to fund and govern and explain and deploy cooling technologies. 

 

My main complaint about the Politico article was that as usual in media reporting it is far too negative about the urgent necessity of geoengineering and the risk-risk analysis. As I said in my COP30 talk, we should have started this twenty years ago. Rebrightening technology is essential planetary infrastructure. It would have made more sense for the journalist to compare Stardust to Joni Mitchell’s vision in Woodstock of billion year old carbon than the dismissive negative film examples he used. 

 

The responsible path is to promote the benefits of sunlight reflection for mitigating extreme weather, biodiversity loss, sea level rise and systemic disruption as the context to discuss such exciting initiatives, while recognising the need for sound and transparent international governance. 

 

Again, I was unimpressed by Daniele Visioni and David Keith’s complacent failure of strategic vision.  The Stardust proprietary approach is an entirely legitimate way to be ready for the likely sudden emergence of an Albedo Accord as a primary climate strategy.  The world will thank Stardust for helping us all be ready to minimise the coming apocalyptic tribulation of the wrath of Gaia, the inevitable rebalancing of homeostasis.

 

Regards

Robert Tulip

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[Ron Baiman]

Dear Herb and Graeme (see earlier thread with comment from Oswald),

Thank you for sharing!  This is indeed an important development that I too believe (hope!) is a net positive for our cause as it really is a “butt kick” to the climate community demonstrating the kind of urgent action that is needed in the face of this imminent most serious ever for all of humanity (and other living society) existential crisis.

Of course I don’t know any of the details but from the article I’m not persuaded that Yedvab et al. have this worked out. Initial reservations: 1) it seems it not at all a simple proposition to inject solid aerosols precursors from a plane into the Stratosphere: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reviewer-2-does-geoengineering/id1529459393?i=1000735945903 , 2) Mike has emphasized how unique the stratosphere is in terms of of very thin layering of released gasses - so not “a plume” at all per the “out door experiment” Stardust experiment that my guess was not in the stratosphere at all, 3) per Doug MacMartin and Wake Smith there are very few current aircraft that can get to the high up mid-latitude stratosphere and these are not designed to lift large payloads, 4) it seems to me that any “well regulated” SAI program will need to start small and gradually scale up and this can only really be done (in terms of actual testing of cooling in the poles due to the stratospheric currents work. Furthermore to build global confidence and trust it seems to me that starting local is necessary. 

Just a knee jerk reaction - but as stated above, I think the fact that they are forcing discussion and consideration is extremely welcome. IMV we are in an emergency, and any initiative that may move the ball forward is important even if it proves to (in itself) be unsuccessful. 

Best,

Ron 

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 23, 2025, at 12:00 PM, Robert Chris <robert...@gmail.com> wrote:



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