The Sky is Falling: Weather Warfare in Fact and Fiction.

During the first class weather manipulation and/or warfare came up more than once. There is a lot of confusion on the subject, caused mostly by misinformation. Conspiracy theorists clutter internet blogs and forums with enough inarticulate babble to fill a library. Fearmongers can be found blaming weather research projects like HAARP for everything from  Hurricane Katrina to el Nino , to the seismic devastation in Japan. After sifting through enough nonsense to terrify many of those subjected to it, I decided to look into the ways the topic has been approached scientifically and politically.

A quick search will yield the wikipedia page on weather control. Though not usually a very good source, wiki managed to cover this well enough for a brief overview. They even included an interesting list of US patents granted for the purpose of weather modification. Upon further investigation online, I came across an interesting paper on the history of climate modification by James R Fleming. I strongly recommend having a look if you’re interested or curious about the subject. The following is quoted from the outline of the paper, since it is a bit of a long read .

ABSTRACT – The chequered history of weather and climate modification exhibits a modicum of promise and an excess of hype. This paper examines two completed historical cycles: the first, dating from 1839, involved western proprietary rainmaking or “pluviculture”; the second, from 1946 to 1978 involved “cloud seeding,” commercial rainmaking, and the attempted weaponization of the clouds. Recently, discussion of weather and climate modification has returned to the science-policy agenda, framed as seemingly inevit able responses to killer storms and global warming. The long history of deceptive and delusional attempts to “control” nature, however, raised serious questions about the rationality of these options.-

Concerns about weather modification have been voiced by many scientists and politicians for decades. These concerns have been addressed by most of the developed world in various international legally binding treaties . Among the most important of the treaties that involve the subject are the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (aka Environtmental Modification Convention or ENMOD) and the more recent Convention on Biological Diversity .

Controlling the weather is a complicated proces that we are at least decades from mastering. Though the internet is flooded with horror stories, there is no need for alarm. Claims that typical natural disasters have been caused by tinkering mad scientists at the behest of opaque and omnipotent governments are becoming increasingly ridiculous, as well as being a shameful form of treason. The direction of weather research has shifted vastly since the first half of the twentieth century. Any country with a budget large enough to research anything on the level of weather warfare is already bound by multiple international treaties that directly prohibit such activity. Even the radiophobes are more justified in their panic over nuclear technology, as while both processes are heavily regulated, only the radiophobes have anything tangible in existence to be afraid of today.