Bill Gates, the world’s most ambitious philanthropist, is planning to spend $4.5 million to fund the research of two scientists at the forefront of geoengineering, the controversial practice of altering climate on a global scale to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Alexis Madrigal at Wired Science reports the money will fund research projects overseen by Ken Caldeira of Stanford University’s Carnegie Department of Global Ecology. David Keith, a physicist at the University of Calgary will also get some of the money. Both scientists will actually disburse the Gates funds to support promising technologies that alter the stratosphere to reflect solar energy, filter carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and brighten ocean clouds.
Gates has been a believer of geoenginneering, but not as a long-term solution to climate change.
Gates spokesman John Pinette tells Madrigal that “Bill views this as an important avenue for research — among many others, including new forms of clean energy.”
Separately, has Gates has also invested some of his money in Vinod Khosla’s renewable energy fund, Khosla Ventures, one of the most cutting-edge renewable energy investment funds.