{"id":513274,"date":"2026-04-04T22:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/513274\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T22:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:55:14","slug":"maybe-its-time-to-give-elon-musk-control-of-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/513274\/","title":{"rendered":"Maybe it\u2019s time to give Elon Musk control of the sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world of finance is creaming its pants over the imminent public offering for SpaceX, Elon Musk<\/a>\u2018s space-flight operation. It might be the largest such offering in history, according to Axios<\/a>, which delivered the news under the headline \u201cSpaceX\u2019s monster IPO is unlike anything we\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX is predicted to become the first company to debut on the stock market already valued at more than not just $1 trillion, which is in itself a record, but $2 trillion<\/a> \u2014 instantly dwarfing the wealth of Walmart, Meta or ExxonMobil. In fact, if SpaceX\u2019s pitch goes through, it would rank behind only five companies in the S&P 500 Index\u00a0\u2014 Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Nvidia and Amazon.\u00a0It will also, of course, cement Musk, who is already worth some $817 billion<\/a>, as history\u2019s first-ever trillionaire.<\/p>\n

A trillion is an inconceivably large number \u2014 for that matter, so is a billion, which is a thousand million, while a trillion is a thousand billion. Yes, that\u2019s basic math, but it helps to spell it out, as our feeble primate brains can barely wrap our minds around a single billion dollars, which is roughly the amount of cash the U.S. is burning through\u00a0 every day of the ongoing Iran war. So multiplying that figure a thousand-fold and giving all of it to one 54-year-old guy is truly the mental equivalent of [insert deflating balloon sound].<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been thinking about Musk a little bit too much lately \u2014 since almost any amount is too much \u2014 and wondering if it\u2019s finally time to give him complete control of the sun. First of all, why not? Pretty soon he\u2019ll own everything anyway. But I\u2019m not entirely joking. One of the more outlandish proposed solutions to climate change is to install orbiting fleets of mirrored satellites that can deflect sunlight, so cooling the planet. There\u2019s a fancy name for this: solar geoengineering. At the rate things are heating up on Earth, threatening to fry us alive sooner than later, this scheme could supposedly reverse or slow the damage we\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n

There are many of things wrong with this idea, but Musk has actually promoted it: \u201cA large solar-powered AI satellite constellation would be able to prevent global warming by making tiny adjustments in how much solar energy reached Earth\u201d he wrote<\/a> on X last November.<\/p>\n

Musk doesn\u2019t just control SpaceX, but also owns its subsidiary Starlink, the world\u2019s largest satellite company, which boasts<\/a> constellations of 10,000 small satellites and counting. As Salon has reported before, these things can appear extremely bright in the night sky, vexing astronomers and essentially censoring the stars<\/a>. Musk has also been accused of weaponizing<\/a> Starlink in war zones, including Ukraine. But if any company can do something as weird as blocking the sun\u2019s rays to chill our planet, like a B-list Marvel villain, Starlink and SpaceX may be the only ones with the infrastructure to do it.<\/p>\n

To say global heating is bad right now is really downplaying the crisis. A March report from the World Meteorological Organization found that \u201cEarth\u2019s climate is more out of balance than at any time in observed history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musk is, to put it gently, a s**tposter, so a lot of his ideas resemble stoner sci-fi notions that might be amusing if he wasn\u2019t an election-meddling sycophant for fascism<\/a> whose gutting of key U.S. agencies has already caused hundreds of thousands<\/a> of deaths. So yeah, giving him control of the sun is probably one of the worst such ideas anyone could possibly come up with, though I don\u2019t doubt he\u2019s capable of even more.<\/p>\n

In fairness, Musk didn\u2019t conjure up this idea all on his own. Solar geoengineering could come in many forms, not just satellites. Other proposed methods<\/a> include squirting aerosols into the atmosphere or using microbubbles to make the ocean whiter. Even studying whether this might be feasible or how much it would cost is far from a popular idea \u2014 even researching<\/a> the topic is controversial and some countries have called for banning<\/a> the practice before anyone tries it. But honestly, in another decade or so, we might feel profoundly different and start wondering why we didn\u2019t try these crazy-sounding methods a lot sooner.<\/p>\n

To say global heating is bad right now is really downplaying the crisis. A March report<\/a> from the World Meteorological Organization found that \u201cEarth\u2019s climate is more out of balance than at any time in observed history, as greenhouse gas concentrations drive continued warming of the atmosphere and ocean and melting of ice.\u201d The report confirms that the 11 years from 2015 to 2025 were the hottest on record, which has triggered extreme weather like cyclones, heat waves and floods that disrupt and end the lives of millions while racking up billions in damages.<\/p>\n

Start your day with essential news from Salon.
Sign up for our free morning newsletter<\/a>, Crash Course.<\/p>\n

As if you needed weather nerds to tell you that. We just survived March 2026, one of the most chaotic and freakish months in my lifetime, and probably yours too. Across the U.S., people were slammed with record-shattering daily averages that are typically experienced in July. In parts of Arizona and California, temperatures hit 112\u00baF \u2014 a first in March, breaking a record<\/a> that hadn\u2019t been touched since March 1954, when the mercury reached 108\u00baF in Rio Grande City, Texas. If anyone, such as our dear leader<\/a>, still believes that climate change is a hoax, I would recommend they go outside more.<\/p>\n

None of these summer-style temperatures in early spring bodes well for the actual summer ahead, in which a \u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o\u201d is predicted to unleash itself, a weather phenomenon some<\/a> are calling \u201cGodzilla El Ni\u00f1o.\u201d (It\u2019s the monster reboot we really don\u2019t need.) Both El Ni\u00f1o and its counterpart La Ni\u00f1a are natural<\/a> shifts in global weather patterns, primarily focused on Pacific Ocean temperatures, but they can impact the whole planet. Basically, things get warmer than average during El Ni\u00f1os and colder than average during La Ni\u00f1a periods. But what makes this El Ni\u00f1o \u201csuper,\u201d what will shove the above-average even higher, is \u2014 you guessed it<\/a> \u2014 the artificial heating from burning fossil fuels, the principal catalyst for climate change.<\/p>\n

In other words, we should probably prepare, once again, for one of the hottest summers of our lives, with a torrent of unpredictable storms and disasters to follow. At the rate things are going, 2026 will likely be the hottest year in human history. At least until next year.<\/p>\n

Suddenly the idea of blocking out the sun with space mirrors doesn\u2019t sound so bad, does it? Even if that means giving that power to someone as repulsive as Musk, who might just decide to weaponize the technology \u2014 turning it off for some countries and not others \u2014 as he\u2019s done with Starlink in Ukraine<\/a> or what\u2019s been described<\/a> as a \u201cfig leaf of humanitarian aid\u201d in Gaza. It matters who will control solar geoengineering, but in a world of bad and less-bad options, we might not have much choice.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure we should reject the impulse to explore extreme ideas to stop global heating, since the current consensus seems to be doing next to nothing.<\/p>\n

On the other end of the spectrum, there are rich folks who want to deploy thousands of mirrors in space to erase the night. A California-based startup called Reflect Orbital says that reflecting sunshine on places during times of darkness could charge up solar panels, grow crops and replace urban lighting. The company recently<\/a> petitioned the FCC for permission to launch a prototype satellite made with a mirror 60 feet wide that could launch as soon as this summer. This project\u2019s side effects could be \u201cpretty catastrophic,\u201d according<\/a> to some experts, who describe it as \u201chorrifying\u201d and \u201ca terrible idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I know from reporting on previous aerospace startups \u2014 including one that pitched putting Coca-Cola ads in the night sky using satellites<\/a> \u2014 that sometimes these proposals are just bluster, meant to generate some media and investor attention.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say which idea astronomers and climate experts hate worse \u2014 pointing sunlight away from Earth or toward it. But still, I\u2019m not sure we should reject the impulse to explore extreme ideas to stop global heating, since the current consensus seems to be doing next to nothing.<\/p>\n

No, the picture is not entirely doom and gloom \u2014 the push for renewable energy is breaking all kinds of records, too, reaching roughly 50% of global energy capacity<\/a> last year. The problem is that while renewables are growing, so is energy demand (the AI \u201crevolution\u201d isn\u2019t helping) and green energy doesn\u2019t always replace older, dirtier technology, but often supplements it<\/a>, in an \u201calso and\u201d situation. Ironically enough, the joint U.S.-Israel war with Iran seems to be waking some countries up<\/a> to the necessity of switching to solar, wind and nuclear as fast as they can. Meanwhile, other countries are backsliding and reaching for coal. The war itself is producing<\/a> more emissions than some countries do in a year, which might negate all these gains. It\u2019s too early to tell.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still possible, although maybe only just, that we can reduce emissions quickly enough to prevent the worst-case scenarios, in which our planet gets so unbearably hot that plants stop growing in many places, starving billions as the air becomes unbreathable. Maybe we\u2019ll really let things go so far that we\u2019ll seriously need to consider blotting out the sky someday soon.<\/p>\n

Any serious solar geoengineering project is probably decades away, but perhaps that\u2019s a good reason to accelerate development now. No one is going to say it\u2019s our best idea, probably not even Musk. But given the way that climate change has become a literal weapon of war<\/a>, maybe it\u2019s worth at least researching as many possible versions of Plan B, C or D as we can.<\/p>\n

Personally, I could deal with crowning Musk as Earth\u2019s first trillionaire and king of the sun if he takes the climate issue seriously \u2014 and also pays his fair share of taxes, honestly repents of his fascist inclinations and makes reparations for all the damage he\u2019s done. Definitely not holding my breath.<\/p>\n

Musk used to talk like he was God\u2019s gift to the environment simply because he acquired the electric vehicle company Tesla, a company now in crisis thanks to his terrible image. But his recent actions, such as constructing<\/a> 41 gas-burning turbines to power xAI or his undying support<\/a> for our pro-pollution president are just a few examples of his massive heel-turn<\/a> on the issue. Above all, his efforts through DOGE to slash and burn federal agencies, eviscerating<\/a> the ability to conduct government-funded climate science, strongly suggests that his worldview is basically about giving up on our home planet, which might explain why he talks about Mars so much.<\/p>\n

But if people are genuinely uncomfortable with granting Musk the ability to turn the sun on and off, why are we OK with giving him more money than God? I am never willing to believe that any billionaires actually \u201cearned\u201d their wealth, let alone an amount as obscene as a trillion. If you socked away $10,000 a day, every single day from the birth of Jesus to right now, you\u2019d have about $7.4 billion \u2014 less than 1% of Musk\u2019s wealth, even before he even hits trillionaire level. Instead of asking him about his brilliant ideas for solving climate change, I\u2019d like us to ask him why he\u2019s apparently so comfortable watching it all burn down.<\/p>\n

In a sense, Musk won\u2019t really be the world\u2019s first trillionaire anyway. In the mid-2000s, Zimbabwe underwent a period of hyperinflation<\/a> that resulted in printing banknotes worth 100 trillion dollars<\/a>. Which wasn\u2019t enough to cover bus fare. So technically, I suppose the people of Zimbabwe, circa 2008, were the first trillionaires. I\u2019m sure the economics nerds will say that doesn\u2019t count, but I think it\u2019s a parallel worth considering. No matter how much Musk accumulates, or any of the other oligarchs driving the planet into oblivion<\/a>, their money won\u2019t be worth anything on a dead planet.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

from Troy Farah<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world of finance is creaming its pants over the imminent public offering for SpaceX, Elon Musk\u2018s space-flight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-513274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}