Within the wake of the devastating floods in Texas, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced new legislation geared toward an uncommon goal: climate modification.
“I’m introducing a invoice that prohibits the injection, launch, or dispersion of chemical compounds or substances into the ambiance for the specific goal of altering climate, temperature, local weather, or daylight depth,” the Georgia Republican posted on X, previously Twitter. “Will probably be a felony offense. I’ve been researching climate modification and dealing with the legislative counsel for months penning this invoice.”
She stated that the laws can be much like Florida’s Senate Bill 56 and added, “We should finish the harmful and lethal observe of climate modification and geoengineering.”
However what precisely is “climate modification”? Is it truly occurring? And is it lethal? HuffPost requested consultants to elucidate the time period, in addition to the commonest instance ― “cloud seeding” ― and what you need to learn about it.
What does ‘climate modification’ imply?
“Climate modification merely means attempting to vary or affect the climate in a roundabout way,” Frank Lombardo, a licensed consulting meteorologist and CEO of WeatherWorks, advised HuffPost. “That may very well be attempting to extend rain or snow, cut back hail or reduce the depth of a climate occasion. It’s actually only a strategy to nudge the ambiance in a sure path ― with various outcomes.”
As science advances and local weather change results in extra excessive and unpredictable climate, there’s been elevated curiosity in climate modification.
“Climate modification deliberately alters the climate utilizing expertise,” stated Katja Friedrich, a professor and chair of the division of atmospheric and oceanic sciences on the College of Colorado Boulder. “This consists of cloud seeding, hail suppression, hurricane weakening, fog suppression.”
The thought of with the ability to reduce devastating storms or put an finish to extreme droughts is actually tempting, however we aren’t truly in a position to perform these sorts of climate modifications successfully at a big scale. And even when that adjustments, there are considerations about unintended penalties on ecosystems, worldwide cooperation, moral distribution of assets and extra.
What’s ‘cloud seeding’?
Whereas large-scale climate modification doesn’t but exist, cloud seeding is essentially the most extensively studied and utilized technique.
“Cloud seeding is once we add tiny particles ― like silver iodide or dry ice ― into clouds,” Lombardo stated. “These particles assist type extra water droplets, which may result in extra rain or snow.”
You’ll largely discover this occurring regionally, in locations just like the Western U.S., China and the United Arab Emirates for the needs of drought reduction and/or snow technology in particular areas. Mainly, particular planes or turbines on the bottom launch the seeding brokers to encourage water droplets to type and fall.
Most clouds don’t must be seeded, Friedrich stated, as precipitating clouds are usually good at doing this naturally.
“The aim is normally to extend precipitation, however some folks additionally discuss utilizing cloud seeding to calm storms or break up heavy rain ― although that’s largely theoretical and never nicely confirmed,” Lombardo famous.
What are the most important misconceptions round cloud seeding and climate modification?
“There are such a lot of misconceptions round cloud seeding, and I’m all the time honored to see how a lot confidence folks have in science,” Friedrich stated. “Sadly, we confirmed in our research on orographic wintertime cloud seeding that we are able to produce snow via cloud seeding, however it’s actually not that a lot.”
Certainly, cloud seeding has solely proven modest success in growing precipitation, with research indicating about 5-15% or even 20% jumps beneath optimum situations. It’s additionally troublesome to totally gauge effectiveness, as climate is dynamic, and plenty of components can play into adjustments in precipitation.
“Its usefulness is extraordinarily restricted,” stated Clifford Mass, a professor of atmospheric and local weather sciences on the College of Washington. “Some individuals are earning profits doing cloud seeding, however the profit is extraordinarily small. In all probability essentially the most useful use of it’s with supercooled fog in Arctic areas. The power to change precipitation is marginal at finest.”
Cloud seeding additionally solely works if there are already current clouds. You can not use cloud seeding to create a single cloud out of skinny air, and its influence on precipitation isn’t sufficient to type a big storm even when there are a lot of current clouds stuffed with moisture.
“If we have been that good at cloud seeding, we might have solved the water disaster within the Western U.S. or some other arid place on the planet,” Friedrich stated. “Nature is highly effective and infrequently very environment friendly in producing massive quantities of precipitation.”
She added that different types of climate modification aren’t anyplace close to as frequent as cloud seeding ― in the event that they’re even attainable at this level.
“The analysis round hurricane and hail suppression has proven that we’re not in a position to modify something considerably,” Friedrich stated. “I don’t know of any hurricane seeding actions. Hail suppression continues to be being completed, however there’s little or no scientific proof that we are able to alter hailstone sizes in thunderstorms. I additionally haven’t seen a lot round fog suppression.”
Lombardo needed to clear as much as one other false impression round cloud seeding.
“Some of us suppose in the event you seed clouds in a single space, you ‘steal’ the rain from close by areas,” he stated. “However there’s no actual proof to help that. Cloud seeding would possibly assist in one area, nevertheless it doesn’t cancel out rain elsewhere.”
Why does this matter come up within the aftermath of pure disasters?
The numerous misconceptions and basic lack of public understanding round climate modification have given rise to many conspiracy theories round climate modification. Within the aftermath of devastating occasions just like the floods in Texas, these theories are likely to get an even bigger highlight.
“When a catastrophe hits ― like an enormous flood or hurricane ― folks naturally search for somebody or one thing guilty,” Lombardo stated. “Is it cloud seeding? Local weather change? Dangerous planning? Politics?”
He famous that Texas has a protracted historical past with cloud seeding, notably in drier elements of the state, so it may really feel like a handy reply to the flooding. Social media posts concerning the authorities or personal entities “engineering” disasters provide a straightforward scapegoat.
“First off, cloud seeding didn’t trigger the huge storm that hit Texas on July 4–5,” Lombardo stated. “Occasions like which are pushed by a lot larger climate patterns, and so they’re powerful to forecast ― and much more troublesome to manage. Additionally, cloud seeding can’t cease hurricanes or weaken them. Folks have tried, nevertheless it hasn’t labored.”
Though Marjorie Taylor Greene didn’t explicitly hyperlink her legislative proposal to the flooding in Texas, the timing of her announcement and previous statements following natural disasters actually fuels the conspiracy principle.
“It’s simply full nonsense,” Mass stated of hyperlinks between climate modification and the Texas flooding. “They suppose that the U.S. authorities has a secret program which are creating the clouds within the sky.”
He additionally in contrast the frenzy to the debunked conspiracy principle round chemtrails ― which Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also promoted.
As with conspiracy theories earlier than it, the linking of the Texas flooding to cloud seeding tends to say extra about human psychology than about science.
“We as human beings need to discover solutions to our why and who questions,” Friedrich stated. “Merely accepting that nature is highly effective and hurricanes and flooding can price lives is more durable to imagine, as a result of we’ve to just accept it and can’t blame anybody.”
