SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Ca. – Luke Iseman and Andrew Song weren’t doing anything illegal hauling around 200-pound cylinders of sulfur dioxide in Song’s RV to pump into weather balloons.
Against the law, no. Controversial? Absolutely.
On a golden California summer evening at the rural edge of Silicon Valley, Song pumped 3.8 pounds of the gas into the balloon while Iseman readied a small Styrofoam box holding an altimeter and locator module.
Next, Iseman attached the balloon’s neck to a cylinder of helium. It slowly filled and rose until it became a giant floating orb taller than he was.
With a gentle push, he sent the biodegradable latex globe lofting into the air. It rose past a giant oak tree and drifted into the clear evening sky.
At just over 14 miles up, well above the air space of commercial planes, the balloon popped, sending its tiny payload of invisible yet reflective gas into the stratosphere.
“Our goal,” said Iseman, a serial entrepreneur, “is to cool the Earth.”
Graphics: Humans warmed Earth. Can’t we just cool it? Here are some ideas.