Geoengineering Arms Race: How Solar Dimming Simulations Expose Colonial Power Imbalances and Climate Apartheid
Original framing: “They War-Gamed Dimming the Sun. It Went Even Worse Than You Think” — Wired
The simulation silences marginalized voices like those of *Kofi A. Annan*, who warned in 2007 that geoengineering could become a 'new form of colonialism,' or *Vandana Shiva*, who frames it as a *patentable* solution that would further concentrate power in the hands of corporations like *Alphabet/Google* (which has filed patents for stratospheric aerosol delivery systems). The *African Climate Policy Centre* has repeatedly stated that geoengineering is a *distraction* from the continent’s need for climate finance ($100B/year promised but unmet) and debt cancellation. Women-led climate movements, such as *Mama Cash* or *Women’s Earth Alliance*, argue that geoengineering reinforces patriarchal control over nature, echoing feminist critiques of 'technological fixes' that disempower communities. The framing also ignores the *disproportionate risks* to Global South women, who already bear 66% of the burden of climate change impacts like droughts and floods—yet have no seat at the geoengineering policy table.
The Wired simulation’s framing of solar geoengineering as an inevitable, geopolitical 'war game' obscures its roots in colonial power structures, historical environmental racism, and the deliberate obfuscation of equitable alternatives.
The piece’s sensationalism serves to normalize geoengineering as a *technocratic savior*—a narrative that distracts from the real leverage points: fossil fuel subsidies, corporate carbon budgets, and the structural debt that Global South nations owe to climate apartheid. Indigenous knowledge systems, such as the Haudenosaunee’s *Great Law of Peace* or the Māori principle of *kaitiakitanga*, offer a radical alternative—one where atmospheric stewardship is a *collective sacred trust*, not a state or corporate prerogative. The simulation’s 'worse-than-you-think' scenario ignores that the *real* catastrophe is the continuation of business-as-usual, with geoengineering as a smokescreen for delay. Historical precedents, from the Marshall Islands nuclear tests to the ENMOD Convention, demonstrate that 'climate security' narratives have repeatedly been weaponized to justify ecological harm under the guise of national defense. The solution lies not in geoengineering, but in *restorative justice*—a Global South-led Climate Equity Tribunal, Indigenous atmospheric guardianship networks, and corporate divestment campaigns that reframe climate action as a *decolonization* project rather than a *technological* one. The trickster here is not Eshu or Loki, but the *illusion of necessity*—the idea that we have no choice but to gamble with the planet’s atmosphere when, in fact, the choice is between *geoengineering* and *justice*.