Seattle, 9 September (WNM) - Bill Gates is supporting the first altitude experiment of a radical approach to solar geoengineering. The experiment will simulate the effects of a huge volcanic eruption. Thousands of airplanes would fly at great heights and spray millions of tons of particles onto the planet. This material will be used to create a massive chemical cloud that could cool the surface.

Universities are increasingly working on this approach: A conference on solar geoengineering will open in Stanford on Tuesday. Harvard has been driving the topic forward for some time now. However, international financing has shifted: While until recently Germany also raised millions, financing is currently provided by the US government.

"Modeling studies have found that it could reduce the intensity of heat waves, for instance, apparently it could reduce the rate of sea level rise. It could reduce the intensity of tropical storms," said Andy Parker, project leader at the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, the US channel CNBC.

According to its advocates, the technology is above all cheap. It is comparatively easy to use and can be done without innovation. Critics fear, however, that the method can lead to massive changes in regional weather conditions and eradicate the blue sky.

“These consequences might be horrific. They might involve things like mass famine, mass flooding, drought of kinds that will affect very large populations,” Stephen Gardiner, author of “A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change.”, told CNBC.

The technology could create unknown side effects. According to model calculations, the cloud would have different results in different regions of the world: China would get hotter and drier, while in India flooding would increase, Kate Ricke from the University of California, San Diego, says.

 The use of this technology could therefore lead to international tensions and even war, experts warn and hence are calling fo international collaboration.