Environmental Leader

Bill Gates is investing at least $4.5 million of his own money into geoengineering research, aimed at combating global climate change, with an emphasis on transparency, reports Wired. At the same time, in light of the hacked climate e-mails, a former Commander of the Pacific fleet is asking President Obama Administration to establish an independent panel to evaluate the link between climate change and security.

Administered by two high-level scientists at the forefront of geoengineering research, climate scientist Ken Caldeira, of Stanford’s Carnegie Department of Global Ecology, and physicist David Keith of the University of Calgary will decide which technologies will receive funding for research that includes reducing solar radiation and filtering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, reports Wired.

One goal would be to develop governance structures to provide transparent risk analysis, as well as manage feedback from global participants.

Keith co-authored a Nature editorial calling for an international fund for “solar-radiation management” in addition to traditional carbon emissions cuts, reports Wired.

He and his co-authors, Edward Parson at the University of Michigan and Granger Morgan at Carnegie Mellon University, propose a $10 million a year budget now for solar-radiation management, growing to $1 billion annually by the end of 2020, reports Wired.

In the wake of climate-change scandals, Adm. James A. Lyons, Jr., USN (Ret.), former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Chairman of the Center for Security Policy’s Military Committee, is asking President Barack Obama to appoint an independent panel of experts to evaluate the link between climate change and national security, reports the Center for Security Policy.

In the open letter, Lyons states: “I recommend that you consider establishing an independent commission of military and national security experts to examine the implications of climate change and related policies to national security. It is too important an issue to be driven by unsubstantiated claims, tainted by scandal and to result in counterproductive policies.”

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