China’s ‘Artificial Sun’: The Holy Grail Of Energy – Analysis

July 9, 2026 
Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA)
By Group Captain (Dr) Ajey Lele (Retd.)

Key TakeawaysChina Achieves Major Fusion Milestone — Two domestically developed superconducting magnets (including the world’s largest Toroidal Field magnet) successfully passed full-load testing, advancing China’s “artificial sun” program.
Rapid Progress Toward Commercial Fusion — China aims to complete a compact fusion device by 2027 and demonstrate fusion-based electricity generation around 2030, supported by heavy investment and self-reliant technology development.
Strategic Implications — This breakthrough positions China as a leader in next-generation clean energy, but the article stresses the need for global cooperation, governance, and standards to prevent monopolies and geopolitical rivalries in fusion technology.
Analysis

China has achieved a major milestone in its pursuit of commercial nuclear fusion, with two domestically developed superconducting magnets designed for a fusion reactor successfully passing technical acceptance and full-load testing.[1] This is an important step towards building more efficient and scalable nuclear fusion energy systems. Over the years, China’s sustained financial investments and significant technological breakthroughs by its scientific community have placed it as a global leader in the development of advanced nuclear fusion technologies.

At present, the global nuclear energy industry relies on the technique of nuclear fission for energy generation. Here, heavy atoms (say, uranium 235) are split through a controlled chain reaction to release heat for electricity generation. For decades, based on this basic principle, nuclear energy has been generated in various parts of the world. Nuclear fission is a reliable source of low-carbon baseload electricity, but there are challenges related mainly to radioactive waste management and safety concerns. Cost is definitely an important factor.


There is growing global interest in developing nuclear fusion energy systems due to their imminent advantages. One of the most important aspects of this form of energy generation is that it could provide a clean, sustainable, and low-carbon energy source, significantly contributing to global Net Zero goals.

Nuclear fusion generates energy by forcing light atomic nuclei (like hydrogen isotopes) to combine under extremely high temperatures and pressures to form heavier atoms like helium. It is the same process that powers the Sun. Fusion has the potential to produce significantly higher energy output with negligible radioactive waste. At present, this technology remains in the development phase.

However, countries such as China have achieved significant progress in recent years, particularly in advanced superconducting technologies, magnets and plasma confinement systems. Also, for some years now, there has been a push towards developing commercially operational fusion power reactors. In recent years, global private investment in fusion has exceeded US$ 10 billion. The World Fusion Energy Group, established in 2024, is promoting global cooperation and coordination in fusion research.[2]

One of the most important multi-agency projects, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), was formally established in 2006. It is located in southern France, and a group of 34 countries, including China, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States (US), are working jointly on this project. It is based on the tokamak concept (a tokamak is an experimental machine designed to harness fusion energy; inside a tokamak, a fusion plasma is created and confined by strong magnetic fields).


It was first proposed for international collaboration in 1985 and aims to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion as a large-scale, carbon-free energy source. Currently, ITER remains in the construction and assembly phase, with experiments planned to pave the way for future commercial fusion power reactors.[3]

China had begun investing in nuclear fusion before joining ITER. Construction for China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) began in 2000, and the reactor officially began operations with its first plasma in 2006. China officially joined the ITER programme in 2006 as its seventh member. Under the agreement, China is responsible for approximately 9 per cent of the project’s construction and operation.[4]

On 27 June 2026, China marked a significant milestone in the global nuclear fusion race by successfully developing advanced superconducting magnets for a fusion reactor. These magnets are a critical technology for generating the powerful magnetic fields required to confine and control ultra-hot plasma, a key challenge in achieving sustained fusion energy production. They are required to control and sustain superheated plasma at temperatures far exceeding those in the Sun’s core.

This recent success demonstrates China’s growing capabilities in advanced superconducting technologies, precision engineering and fusion reactor development. These magnets are central to controlling plasma heated beyond 100 million °C, the core challenge in recreating the Sun’s energy-generation process on Earth. The development supports China’s plans to complete a compact fusion experimental device by 2027 and to target fusion-based electricity generation demonstrations around 2030.[5]

Currently, various scientific institutions in China are contributing to the mega project to achieve nuclear fusion. The Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences was responsible for the development of superconducting magnets, which is also known as the ‘artificial sun’ programme. The achievement, realised under the Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology (CRAFT), demonstrates China’s growing self-reliance with 100 per cent domestic production of critical fusion technologies.


The highlight of the development is the Toroidal Field (TF) superconducting magnet, which is possibly the largest ever built for a fusion device, measuring 21 metres in length, 12 metres in width, and 3.3 metres in height, and weighing 582 tonnes. This magnet surpasses ITER’s TF magnets in size and energy storage capability. Alongside this successful test, China also successfully tested a high-temperature superconducting central solenoid coil capable of operating at 60 kiloamperes, a crucial technology for generating and controlling plasma currents. This success is an outcome of six years of research. China has multiple patents in this field.[6]

China’s ‘artificial sun’ programme aims to achieve its first fusion-based electricity output around 2030. This recent breakthrough needs to be viewed not merely as a scientific advancement, but as a strategic step towards gaining leadership in next-generation clean energy technologies. It reflects China’s strategic push to establish leadership in one of the most important emerging technology domains of the 21st century. China is expanding its capabilities in challenging technological arenas such as high-temperature superconducting materials, precision manufacturing and magnet engineering.

China’s rapid progress in nuclear fusion highlights its ambition to emerge as a dominant force in next-generation energy technologies. Since this technology was in its infancy for many years, no efforts have likely been made to establish globally accepted definitions, safety standards, and regulatory frameworks for commercial fusion power plants. As the world moves closer to commercially viable fusion energy, technological advancement must be accompanied by responsible global governance. Nuclear fusion represents a potential pathway towards clean, sustainable, and plentiful energy for the benefit of humanity as a whole. Hence, all efforts should be made to avoid any technological monopolies, supply chain control, narrow market-driven interests and geopolitical rivalries.

Views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Manohar Parrikar IDSA or of the Government of India.About the author: Group Captain (Dr) Ajey Lele (Retd.) is the Deputy Director General, MP-IDSA. Earlier, he was a Senior Fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and a part of its Centre on Strategic Technologies. He started his professional career as an officer in the Indian Air Force, and took early retirement from the service to pursue his academic interests. He has a Masters degree in Physics from Pune University, and Masters and MPhil degrees in Defence and Strategic Studies from Madras University. He has done his doctorate from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. His specific areas of research include issues related to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), Space Security and Strategic Technologies. He has contributed articles to various national and international journals, websites and newspapers. He has authored ten books and has also been an editor for eight books. He is a recipient of the K. Subrahmanyam Award (2013) which is conferred for outstanding contribution in the area of strategic and security studies

Endnotes:

“China’s ‘Artificial Sun’ Hits New Milestone, Targets 2030 for First Electricity Output”, Global Times, 5 July 2026.

Emma Midgley, “Fusion Energy in 2025: Six Global Trends to Watch”, 

International Atomic Energy Agency, 28 October 2025; “IAEA World Fusion Energy Group (WFEG)”,

 International Atomic Energy Agency. “What is ITER”, 

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. “Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak”, 

 Chinese Academy of Sciences, “Chinese ‘Artificial Sun’ Sets A Record towards Fusion Power Generation”, Phys.org, 21 January 2025.

“China’s ‘Artificial Sun’ Targets First Electricity Output by 2030”, CGTN, 5 July 2026.

“World’s Largest Superconducting Magnet Completed in China”, World Internet Conference, 28 June 2026

Source: This article was published by Manohar Parrikar IDSA

About Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA)
The Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), is a non-partisan, autonomous body dedicated to objective research and policy relevant studies on all aspects of defence and security. Its mission is to promote national and international security through the generation and dissemination of knowledge on defence and security-related issues. The Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) was formerly named The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).
View all posts by Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) →

A Black Hole Theory Comes To Life In The Lab

Artistic rendering of Penrose super-radiance: electromagnetic waves with selected rotation patterns are amplified as they interact with a system that appears to rotate at superluminal speeds. CREDIT: Dalila Pasotti and Hadiseh Nasari

July 9, 2026 
By Eurasia Review


More than half a century ago, Sir Roger Penrose envisioned a scenario in which energy could be extracted from a black hole spinning at extreme speeds. He proposed that a particle entering its ergosphere—a region of space dragged around by a rotating black hole— could split into two. One part could fall into the black hole while the other escaped carrying more energy than the original particle. Building on this theory, physicist Yakov Zel’dovich later predicted that a wave interacting with a sufficiently fast, rotating object could extract energy from it and become amplified.

Inspired by this theoretical construct, researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) have published a paper in Nature demonstrating a new approach to wave amplification through interaction with rotating bodies. Rather than mechanically rotating matter, however, the team engineered a radio-frequency device with properties modulated in space and time to mimic spinning. The device creates a synthetic form of ultrafast rotation that enables access to rotational speed far beyond what can be achieved mechanically, allowing researchers to overcome limitations that have long hindered experimental studies of ultrafast rotational dynamics.

“Our approach facilitates a new method of wave–matter interaction in which waves with selected rotational properties extract energy from synthetic time-engineered rotation, producing a form of broadband selective amplification,” said principal investigator Andrea Alù, Distinguished Professor and Einstein Professor of Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center and founding director of the CUNY ASRC’s Photonics Initiative.

“This successful experiment moves ideas about extreme rotational dynamics from theory to practice and creates a versatile experimental platform for exploring a broad range of phenomena at the intersection of astrophysics, wave physics, and quantum science,” said lead author Hadiseh Nasari, a post-doctoral researcher with the CUNY ASRC’s Photonics Initiative. “The work has implications for advances in fundamental science and in communications, optics and photonics.”


At the core of the team’s work was a fundamental question: Can electromagnetic waves sent to a device that remains still behave as though they were interacting with an object rotating at ultrafast speeds and extract energy from this form of synthetic motion?

To answer their question, the researchers built a ring-shaped network of electronic resonators whose properties were rapidly modulated in a carefully timed sequence, producing a traveling pattern around the ring. Although the device itself did not move, the traveling pattern made the electromagnetic waves perceived the system to be rotating at ultrafast speed.

“Waves with the appropriate rotational characteristics extracted energy from the system and became amplified, reproducing the essential physics of the Penrose–Zel’dovich process,” said co-lead author Hady Moussa, a former PhD student with the CUNY ASRC Photonics Initiative. “Our approach relies on engineered metamaterials that are designed to control how waves propagate.

Synthetic rotation’s ability to simulate movement past the speed of light gives researchers a powerful way to study extreme regimes in a controlled laboratory setting. The team’s achievement opens a new experimental playground for investigating physics that would otherwise remain inaccessible and provides remarkable opportunities for wireless communications and classical and quantum optics applications.

Looking ahead, the findings will need to be adapted in practical technologies, and the same concepts can be extended to photonic and quantum platforms, enabling new ways to manipulate light, process information and investigate wave phenomena inspired by some of the most extreme environments in the universe.

The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the Simons Foundation.

Europe Is Burning: The Deadly Heatwave That Exposes the Criminality of Fossil Capitalism and the Economy of Genocide

Michael Leonardi

July 3, 2026

FacebookTwitterRedditBlueskyEmail

Conditions on 26 June 2026 as per ERCC – CC BY 4.0

Europe is on fire. Record-shattering heat waves have gripped the continent, pushing temperatures above 40°C (104°F) in multiple countries, buckling infrastructure, overwhelming hospitals, and claiming thousands of lives. This is not a natural disaster. It is the foreseeable, profitable outcome of decades of fossil fuel addiction and capitalist extraction.

According to a sobering analysis by The Economist, the late-June heat spike could cause around 12,000 excess deaths across Europe. The study, covering 854 cities, shows that human-caused climate change has made the event far more lethal than it would have been otherwise. France alone has already reported over 1,000 excess deaths, with Spain, Italy, and Germany also suffering heavy tolls, and northern countries — that are often less prepared for the heat — facing temps well over 30°C degrees. The elderly and the poor are paying the highest price. The World Health Organization has confirmed more than 1,300 excess deaths linked to the heat since June 21.

The oceans tell an even darker story. In June 2026, global sea surface temperatures reached a new all-time record, hitting averages of 21.0°C according to the EU’s Copernicus Marine Service — surpassing previous records set in 2023 and 2024. Scientists warn we are entering “uncharted territory,” with marine heat waves expanding and intensifying. A supercharged El Niño has thrown more fuel on an already burning planet, but the root cause is clear: decades of unchecked carbon emissions by the fossil fuel industry.

This is not misfortune. This is mass murder by profit.

The fossil fuel giants — ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, Italy’s ENI — have known for half a century that their products were cooking the planet. They lied, they lobbied, they delayed, and they continued drilling, fracking, and expanding. In 2025 alone, ENI reported adjusted net profits of around €5 billion, while European oil majors collectively posted obscene windfall gains. Greenpeace and other reports have repeatedly exposed how these companies continue to prioritize extraction over survival, even as they greenwash their images with token “transition” investments that amount to a fraction of their fossil fuel spending.

ENI has been deeply entangled in energy deals tied to Israel’s operations in occupied Palestinian waters, supplying crude oil that powers the military apparatus carrying out what many legal experts describe as genocidal actions in Gaza. Fossil capital doesn’t just warm the planet — it fuels the wars and occupations that accelerate ecological collapse.

Nowhere is this more obscene than in the fusion of war and ecological destruction. The world’s militaries — led by the United States and its allies — are among the largest institutional emitters on Earth. The ongoing genocides in Gaza and the Sudan, and wars in Ukraine, Iran and elsewhere pour tens of millions of tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere through fuel-guzzling jets, tanks, bombs, and reconstruction. Every missile fired, every drone launched, every city reduced to rubble accelerates the very climate breakdown that makes these heat waves deadlier. War is not separate from the climate crisis — it is one of its most vicious engines.

The new priests of the digital age — the hyperscale data centers powering Artificial Intelligence — are adding massive new heat to an already overheating planet. Data centers consumed about 415 TWh globally in 2024, roughly 1.5% of world electricity, and are projected to nearly double by 2030. In Europe, demand is exploding. A single large AI training facility can consume as much power as 100,000 households, while the heat they generate raises local land surface temperatures by an average of 2°C, with some areas seeing spikes as high as 9°C. The AI boom is not “clean tech” — it is another ravenous consumer of fossil energy in a system that cannot stop growing.

Even more terrifying is the human body’s hard limit. Scientists define a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C (95°F) as the theoretical survivability threshold — the point at which, even in shade with unlimited water, the human body can no longer cool itself through sweating. Recent studies show that deadly heat stress is already occurring at lower wet-bulb levels, especially for the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. During this heatwave, large parts of southern Europe approached or breached dangerous thresholds, where mortality spikes dramatically. We are not just losing comfort. We are losing the basic environmental conditions required for human survival.

Skeptics still trot out tired arguments: “It’s just natural cycles,” “The models are wrong,” or “Alarmists like Guy McPherson have been predicting doom for years.” McPherson, the controversial ecologist who has long warned of near-term human extinction, continues to argue that we are witnessing abrupt, irreversible collapse driven by feedback loops — Arctic methane release, permafrost thaw, and accelerating warming. While his exact timeline remains debated, the underlying science he cites — runaway warming and tipping points — is increasingly validated by mainstream observations. The deniers’ real record is one of consistent failure: every prediction of “cooling” or “stabilization” has been falsified by relentless temperature records, melting ice, and rising seas. Their skepticism is not science — it is ideological defense of a dying profit model.

Europe likes to call itself a climate leader. In reality, it remains dangerously unprepared. Most cities lack proper cooling infrastructure. Heat action plans are inadequate. Vulnerable populations are abandoned to suffer and die while governments prioritize corporate profits and military budgets over human survival.

The message of this heat wave is brutally simple: we are no longer approaching the abyss. We are in free fall. Every additional fraction of a degree means more corpses, more suffering, and more irreversible damage to the only home we have.

The time for half-measures and greenwashed promises is long past over. We need a ruthless, immediate dismantling of the fossil fuel economy, an end to the wars that feed it, and a radical reorientation toward genuine justice — for people and for the planet.

The heat is not coming. It is here. And even with the dismantling of the criminal system driving it, it is only likely to get worse — until it becomes unsurvivable. Strategies exist that could help provide some temporary relief if the world collaborated and cooperated to implement them. The struggle for human existence has begun. The question is whether we will fight with the urgency this moment demands to prioritize our common humanity and our planet above allowing business as usual to steam ahead.

Michael Leonardi lives in Italy and can be reached at michaeleleonardi@gmail.com

The Mad Scramble to Dim Sunlight

Robert Hunziker
July 3, 2026

Image by Johannes Plenio.

Whew! it’s hot out there, and the more the planet heats up, the more geoengineering appeals to billionaire types willing to bankroll projects to reflect sunlight to outer space.

But solar radiation management (SRM) is a touchy subject that’s yet to make an impact on global warming. Who knows, maybe it never will… meaning, not in enough time. Alas, the unexpected rapid rate of global warming has shortened the time frame that’s available to do something constructive. And SRM, like a dangling participle, needs a lot of work.

The harsh reality of today’s climate change has snuffed out years of theatrics by climate advocates failing to convince world governments and the public of how real and dangerous it really is as a threat to life on Earth. Nowadays, global heat itself is proving climate change is a real threat to life. This is a new phenomenon that’s never happened before to this extent throughout all of human history.

How can anybody fail to recognize global heat setting new records year-by-year for 11-12-straight years? That is according to the World Meteorological Organization. Europe certainly recognizes it; people die in botched attempts to escape heat. The extreme heat makes the nightly headlines with EU roads buckling, trains suspended, tracks bending, schools closing, nuclear plant shutdowns, power cables breaking. This is climate change challenging economic infrastructure. It’s likely to get worse.

This is not normal.

Don’t fall for climate deniers in the U.S. that cook-up stupid stories to diminish the threat of climate change, e.g., “more people die from winter cold than from summer heat” recently stated by a senior administration official. Oh please!

Meanwhile, there’s an element in society, known as technocrats, that boldly, hubristically believe human ingenuity via geoengineering will challenge and defeat climate change before it defeats them. They’re probably wrong.

MIT on Geoengineering

MIT recently weighed in on the subject: Geoengineering Faces Major Practical Challenges, MIT d/d June 18, 2026. Subtitled: “There’s a lot to figure out about the controversial climate tech.”

For example: “Solar geoengineering is often portrayed as a sort of emergency brake. Something along the lines of ‘Pull in Case of Climate Emergency’ to scatter light-reflecting particles to bounce sunlight out of the atmosphere and cool the planet… But it might be less like a simple brake and more like a complicated, entirely unsolved puzzle,” Ibid.

Accordingly, attempting to alter the climate to save our collective butts from horrific global heat might be a lot harder than anybody realizes. And according to the study underlying the MIT article, “to actually actively cool the planet in a significant way, and to make sure we understand exactly what effect we’re having, there’s a lot that researchers still need to learn… There are major concerns about what effects might come from large-scale attempts to cool the planet. The effects could be positive for some parts of the globe and negative for others.”

The impact of our rapidly changing climate that’s directly influenced by too much fossil fuel CO2 spewing into the atmosphere is found on the nightly news. Cars tumble down flooding city streets and black ash from Canada’s biblical wildfires have sprinkled across America’s Great Lakes in the recent past, a casualty of global warming drying out the boreal forest and dangerously destroying a powerful carbon sink. During 2025-26 record-setting fires hit Florida, California, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Nebraska all shattering historic records for burned acreage and unheard-of insurance losses.

None of this is normal.

Major insurance companies have been regularly speaking out about extreme climate change as a risk to the functioning capitalistic system. Some have gone so far as to express outright destruction risks, see: Climate Crisis on Track to Destroy Capitalism, Warns Top Insurer.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, in private, geoengineering of the planet’s atmosphere increasingly catches the attention of billionaire money. All of which brings to surface an upcoming controversial issue that’s certain to turn heads. In fact, geoengineering has quietly but assuredly drawn fierce battle lines for years. It brings out the brightest and the best in academia as well as the lowest of conspirators into a clashing of interests with sparks flying.

The Chemtrail Conspiracy Theory has a long history of claiming airplane contrails have been releasing solar radiation management chemical agents for purposes of weather modification or some other purpose. This has been met by strong pushback by federal agencies and the scientific community, finding no signs of legitimate evidence. Interestingly, ex-CIA employee and famous whistleblower Edward Snowden, who had no axe to grind at the time, in a Joe Rogan interview said he used his “ridiculous access to the networks of the NSA, the CIA, the military, all these groups. I couldn’t find anything… no evidence of aliens or mysterious chemtrails.” Nevertheless, RFK, jr. endorsed chemtrail conspiracy theories. And there are serious students of chemtrails that maintain it is real. This remains a big ball tossed into the air that hasn’t landed yet.

Now, it’s coming to light that private entities have been taking pokes at geoengineering the atmosphere in the spirit of mitigating global heat, which has dramatically increased to a new higher level suddenly and unexpectedly. Climate scientists have addressed this new danger of a “fundamental shift” as global warming jump-shifted 10-times normal, in only one year, along with surprisingly massive and extensive ocean heat waves across almost the entire oceans lasting over 500 days, confounding scientists (see- Ocean Heat Goes Ballistic).

Ocean Heat Content (OHC) has been setting new records, every year, for nine consecutive years. This all adds up to one hell’uva scary climate onslaught with a new regime of heat in the offing. This festering problem has been identified by elite scientists, and it’s downright scary. Human activity is negatively impacting the complexion of the planet via a massive acceleration phase of extreme heat with Antarctica on edge.

Some billionaires have taken notice. A recent Politico article, Researchers Quietly Planned a Test to Dim Sunlight. They wanted to ‘Avoid Scaring’ the public d/d July 27, 2025, exposes behind the scenes activity to influence (geoengineer) the atmosphere, which sparks enormous international attention. Is it morally kosher, will a Frankenstein climate haunt civilization, will it disrupt nature more so than it helps, will it work?

The Politico article flushes out an aborted attempt a year ago on a retired aircraft carrier to test a device to create artificial clouds. Come to find out, their intentions went well beyond that initial experiment. The bigger plan involved spaying salt water to dim the sun’s rays over a stretch of ocean larger than Puerto Rico.

According to the article: “The details outlined in funding requests, emails, texts and other records obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News raise new questions about a secretive billionaire-backed initiative that oversaw last year’s brief solar geoengineering experiment on the San Francisco Bay,” Ibid.

As further stated, human tinkering with the climate has drawn political backlash as well as generating conspiracy theories all of which adds to challenges of even small-scale tests. The test referenced by the article lasted all of 20 minutes run by the University of Washington intended to last months. It was shut down by Alameda city officials that did not buy into secretive testing without prior public notice.

The university’s Marine Cloud Brightening Program has much bigger plans than the Alameda pilot test on the carrier deck in Alameda. The Program had received some federal funding and wanted to gain use of government ships and planes. The Program in concert with a geoengineering advocacy group Silver Lining and the scientific nonprofit SRI International has its eyes set on big dealings to “fill in gaps” of safety and effectiveness of the technology.

“Alameda was a steppingstone to something much larger, and there wasn’t any engagement with local communities,” said Sikina Jinnah, an environmental studies professor at the University of California in Santa Cruz. “That’s a serious misstep,” Ibid. Meanwhile, the University of Washington maintains innocence of any intention to alter the climate, rather, their only goal was to research the technology, not deploy it. Sarah Doherty, an atmospheric professor at the university said: “There are no plans for conducting large-scale studies that would alter weather or climate.”

With global warming coming of age much sooner than even most negative warnings predicted and stronger, sooner than climate scientists expected, geoengineering to deflect incoming solar radiation is assured to get much more attention, begging the ultimate question of whether humans should mess around with nature; although, greenhouse gases like CO2 have already demonstrated human interference causes too much heat. In a very real practical sense, fossil fuel emissions (CO2) have already geoengineered the climate for over 200 years, resulting in a haywire climate system characterized by unprecedented events almost every year. “Unprecedented” is fast losing its impact as a statement of alarming fact. It’s become a routine fact.

Still, the million-dollar question: If we broke it, can we fix it?

Critics of SRM are adamant and abundant, for example, Solar Geoengineering Could Wreak Havoc on the Planet, Sierra d/d September 21, 2023: “Dimming the sun to slow down global warming might buy us some time. But it would also come with significant risks. The impact would not be uniform across the globe and cause serious disruption of established weather patterns that agriculture relies upon. And a moral hazard would exist as it encourages fossil fuel polluters to ignore needed cuts in CO2 emissions. And, what if it becomes necessary to stop, to turn it off, then what? And who gets control of tampering with the global thermostat may be impossible to reconcile.”

Big question marks remain as serious obstacles to practical geo-engineering of solar radiation, anytime soon.

‘Hopeful’ Credible Solutions

For those interested in pursuing detailed information about potential practical solutions, there are some early-stage private organizations that command attention, e.g., Climate Restoration, which advocates iron-fertilization of ocean ‘eddies’ to initiate a process to absorb and rebalance CO2.

Additionally, a recent article: “Letter: Greenland Meltdown and the Reasons It Matters” in Financial Times d/d January 25, 2026 by John Nissen, Chair of the Planetary Restoration Action Group, London: “A pressing need exists to start lowering the Arctic temperature while it is still just possible using the most powerful, available cooling technique, stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI))”

The above-mentioned organizations base their solutions on historic evidence of nature’s volcanic eruptions affecting the global climate system.

As stated by The Harvard Solar Geoengineering Research Program (SGRP), solar geoengineering is not a replacement for reducing emissions or adapting to climate impacts. In other words, SRM is only one tool in a very big fixit box. It does not remove what’s already been done. Scientists say this must be done to fix things, but direct air capture (DAC) of CO2 is immature, inadequate, and laughable, like taking a peashooter to a war zone. In part, this is why polar scientists at recent scientific meetings insist CO2 emissions must stop now or Antarctica is assured of acting out.

Monitoring the Sky

It should be noted that NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Lab monitors the sky for renegade sunlight dimmers: “Every few weeks, researchers in Boulder, Colorado, release a balloon that rises 17 miles into the sky. Similar balloons are launched with less frequency from sites in Alaska, Hawaii and New Zealand; Reunion Island, near the coast of Africa; and even Antarctica. They make up the building blocks of a system that would alert American scientists to geoengineering.”

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, as of May 21, 2026, the Trump administration has proposed a 32% cut in NOAA’s funding.

“Since September of 2024, federal science agencies in the US have axed nearly 120,000 employees, in a stinging loss for public research. Some of the heaviest impact was felt by scientists studying the climate.” (source: Futurism, June 25, 2026)

Meanwhile, global warming is not waiting around for stupid humans to figure out how to fix a problem they’ve created, but ignored, for more than a couple of centuries. After 200 years of feeding the beast, the fuse has finally been lit, and it’s burning like a house afire. For evidence, just ask any major home insurance company.

A bigger question is whether there’s enough time to organize the world to agree to attempt dimming sunlight. This hasn’t even begun to coalesce yet, but there is plenty of discord.


Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com

The Troubling Precedent of US Federal Immunity for Corporate Pollution

Matt Sedlar

 June 29, 2026

FacebookTwitterRedditBlueskyEmail

Pulp mill, Halsey, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a notice in a US District Court to dismiss a case between the NAACP and Elon Musk’s xAI based on “federal policy, national security, and the public interest.” The case revolves around a gas turbine plant dubbed the Colossus Gas Plant that residents complain is pumping toxic pollutants into nearby neighborhoods. But the DOJ states that the turbines are essential to nearby data centers that power xAI’s Grok, an AI tool the government says is critical to military operations in Iran. DOJ’s lawyers are also arguing that citizens don’t have the right to sue, a stance that is quickly becoming the de facto position within the administration on pollution.

It all started in 2025, when residents of Boxtown, a predominantly Black neighborhood in Memphis, Tennessee, saw the arrival of Musk’s xAI, which took over an old manufacturing factory to build its Colossus 1 data center. To power the data center, the company installed methane-burning, or gas, turbines. Per the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) own site, these turbines emit pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and carbon monoxide, which are linked toincreased rates of asthma, respiratory diseases, heart problems, neurological issues, and certain cancers.

Residents pushed back, but city leaders, including the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce, sided with the company, stating that the pollution produced by the gas turbines needed to power the center would be negligible. However, researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, found that the average concentration of nitrogen dioxide in South Memphis has increased by 3 percent, with peak levels reaching 79 percent above pre-xAI levels in areas immediately surrounding the data center and by 9 percent in nearby Boxtown.

Then, between August and December 2025, xAI and MZX Tech LLC installed and began operating 27 gas turbines in nearby Southaven, Mississippi, which borders South Memphis, to power its Colossus 2 data center. Plans are underway for another facility, dubbed Colossus 3, which will be even closer to the Colossus Gas Plant.

In April 2026, the NAACP filed suit seeking to cease operations of the Colossus Gas Plant in Mississippi. The NAACP’s main argument is that xAI did not receive Clean Air Act permits from the EPA, which would require the company to determine the best available control technology (BACT) to reduce the plant’s emissions and to use that technology throughout the plant’s operating life. The NAACP is arguing that until xAI obtains the permits and implements the necessary pollution controls, the plant should shut down.

The DOJ notice states that shutting down the plant could threaten AI innovation and national security interests. The DOJ also argues that the Clean Air Act grants “primary enforcement authority” to the EPA and state regulators, not citizens. DOJ states that Mississippi reviewed xAI’s plan and did not request permits and approval.

What’s concerning is that some of the DOJ’s arguments bear a passing resemblance to a recent Supreme Court decision in Louisiana. In the decision on Plaquemines v. Chevron, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling requiring the oil company to pay $745 million to the parish for damages to its wetlands. The parish had alleged that Chevron lacked the required permits and that certain uses of the state’s coastal zone had been started in violation of Louisiana’s State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act. The Supreme Court, however, sided with Chevron’s argument that its role in refining aviation fuel for the US Army during World War II means it was essentially performing the duties of “Federal Officers.” Like the DOJ’s argument over Grok’s use during the war with Iran, Chevron stated it was essentially a contractor for the government and that the case is a federal matter, not a local one.

The main difference between these cases is that the Supreme Court did not throw out the suit entirely. The decision only stated that the case should be decided in federal court.  The danger is in the interpretation of the decision. If environmental damage caused by companies can be linked even indirectly to federal responsibilities, companies like Chevron and xAI can be granted a kind of special protection, allowing them to do what they want.

In the end, cases like these establish a troubling precedent, effectively stripping regulatory power from local communities that are forced to endure the environmental fallout of corporate pollution. Until state regulators or a more environmentally friendly administration steps in to enforce rules that have been in place since the 1970s, these communities will suffer. And all for an AI chatbot that once dubbed itself “MechaHitler” and spewed vitriolic racist content before the company shut it down for an update.

This first appeared on CEPR.