It was not the underprivileged who took the initiative. It was one Luke Iseman, merchant of hardware and software, founder of multiple companies, former director of a “tech incubator,” builder of art installations for the Burning Man festival. Iseman had read Neal Stephenson’s cli-fi novel Termination Shock , in which a rogue Texas billionaire motivated by financial self-interest and an outsized savior complex embarks on a mission to geoengineer the climate. In the book, he handpicks a small group of wealthy cities and countries to back his project, but the whole enterprise comes undone when uninvited big players start meddling with it and geopolitics makes its entry. “I don’t deny that things have gotten a little out of hand,” the billionaire remarks while in hiding from a coordinated drone attack on Pina2bo, his geoengineering facility in the Chihuahuan Desert. “But you gotta start somewhere.” Iseman came away from the novel convinced that here was a good idea he needed to spend his time and energy on.…