Weather Modification: Why I will always reject a carbon tax, climate lock downs, banning gas powered vehicles, and more

August 14, 2023 Emily Brockhoff

Controlling the weather seems like such a futuristic endeavor that the idea we are actively modifying our weather right now and have for over the past 70 years seems too much to comprehend. Never mind that the history and use of weather modification — often referred to as cloud seeding — is detailed on government websites. We must come to terms with its use. We must think about the implications. If we are toying with the weather, will we find ourselves in a position we don’t like? If we play with fire, will we get burned? But I get ahead of myself. Let’s take a look at cloud seeding.

Introducing cloud seeding

Cloud seeding is a weather modification technique that aims to enhance precipitation by introducing substances into clouds. By dispersing particles such as silver iodide or dry ice, cloud seeding attempts to stimulate cloud growth and increase the likelihood of rainfall or snowfall. This procedure is typically undertaken in areas experiencing drought or dry conditions, with the purpose of augmenting water resources, alleviating water scarcity, and mitigating hail damage to crops. Aerial evidence of this endeavor are the white streaks that remain the sky hours after the aircraft have departed. These streaks differ from condensation lines in that condensation lines generally evaporate within an hour or less of the plane’s presence in that area.

The history of cloud seeding in the USA

This weather modification technique has a deep-seated history in the United States. The origins of cloud seeding can be traced back to the 1940s when Dr. Vincent Schaefer, a research chemist for General Electric, successfully demonstrated the concept by seeding clouds with dry ice to produce snow. This groundbreaking achievement paved the way for further experimentation and research on cloud seeding. In 1949, the United States government launched the National Hail Research Experiment (NHRE) to explore the potential of cloud seeding in mitigating hail damage to crops. This endeavor marked the beginning of large-scale cloud seeding operations in the country, including Texas and North Dakota.

In the Lone Star State, cloud seeding was first introduced in the 1960s as a solution to counteract severe drought conditions and has licensed and regulated this industry ever since. The state funded research and collaborated with various organizations to conduct cloud seeding experiments, primarily using silver iodide as an aerosol agent. Over the years, Texas expanded its cloud seeding efforts, establishing a network of ground-based generators and aircraft to release the seeding agents. Similarly, North Dakota embraced cloud seeding in the 1950s. With the vast agricultural industry heavily reliant on precipitation, the state recognized cloud seeding as a potential tool to enhance rainfall. As a result, North Dakota formed cooperative partnerships between private companies and public agencies to perform cloud seeding operations.

Cloud seeding and the federal budget

While there have been initiatives and research projects exploring the potential of cloud seeding to enhance precipitation in certain regions, a precise figure for the government's spending on this per category (i.e. research versus application) is not readily available. However, a digitized letter to Senator Schweiker from the Comptroller General of the United States of America dated May 31, 1972 states that from the fiscal years of 1971-1972 $4.6 million (which is $30,319,594.59 in 2022) was spent on weather modification research. The areas of research include “precipitation modification,” “fog and cloud modification,” “hail suppression,” “lighting modification,” and — most interestingly — “hurricane modification.” The only thing more interesting than hurricane modification is that it was researched for defense, i.e. military, purposes.

Cloud seeding and the Department of Defense

Remember Dr. Vincent Schaefer from General Electric and his cloud seeding research? Well, the Department of Defense found his research compelling enough to partner with General Electric “to extend this research to the fight against hurricanes, before giving birth to the Cirrus project,” according to Frank Galland in his article in La Monde entitled “Rain Control Technologies Used by China Must be Regulated.” He goes on to write:

US military staff went on to use these techniques during the Vietnam War, through Project Popeye, slowing the advance of North Vietnamese Army logistical columns by flooding the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Results were deemed promising enough for the Pentagon to continue the operation from 1967 to 1972.

According to a Business Insider article authored by Erin Brodwin and published on July 29, 2016:

[T]he US military brought cloud-seeding to the battlefield. Between 1967 and 1972, during the Vietnam War, it spent roughly $3 million each year on weather modification campaigns designed to draw out the monsoon season and create muddy, difficult conditions for enemy fighters. One campaign involved an attempt to flood the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the main route that enemy fighters were using to deliver their supplies. . .

The program was also known as Operation Popeye, Operation Intermediary, and Operation Compatriot. Whenever too many people would learn the name, the military would change it.

The United States, however, is not the only country with an eye toward militarizing weather modification.

Cloud seeding in China

China has been utilizing and researching cloud seeding since 1958, nearly a decade after its introduction in the US. However, China has more than made up for “lost time.” During the summer 2016 Beijing Olympics, the country spent $30 million on weather modification to ensure clear skies for the events. In a 2013 Quartz article, Gwynn Guilford writes “China creates 55 billion tons of artificial rain a year—and it plans to quintuple that.” And that comes at a cost— with a whopping $150 million spent in 2011. (Remember, the United States only spends $15 million).

In regard to international relationships, CNN’s author James Griffths writes:

China’s enthusiasm for the technology has created some alarm, particularly in neighboring India, where agriculture is heavily dependent on the monsoon, which has already been disrupted and become less predictable as a result of climate change.

India and China recently faced off along their shared – and hotly disputed – border in the Himalayas, with the two sides engaging in their bloodiest clash in decades earlier this year. For years, some in India have speculated that weather modification could potentially give China the edge in a future conflict, given the importance of conditions to any troop movements in the inhospitable mountain region. . .

In a paper last year, researchers at National Taiwan University said that the “lack of proper coordination of weather modification activity (could) lead to charges of ‘rain stealing’ between neighboring regions,” both within China and with other countries. They also pointed to the lack of a “system of checks and balances to facilitate the implementation of potentially controversial projects.”

Cloud seeding and its impact

While most of the front-page Google articles on weather modification assure their readers that the results and impacts of weather modification are dubious we must reject those claims. Why are 52 nations (including Australia, China, India, Israel, South Africa, and Thailand) investing millions upon millions of dollars on weather modification? Some answers could include money laundering, foolish spending, or — believe it or not — actual weather modification.

Most front page, Google articles also leave out the pitfalls of this technology. The very act of cloud seeding releases carbon dioxide vapor which, according to the government agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization, is “supercharging the natural greenhouse effect, causing global temperature to rise.”

Perhaps changing the climate is contributing to climate change.

Laura Kuhl writes in her article for “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists”:

As early as 1965, the National Science Foundation called for urgent social science research into the impacts of weather modification, stating, “If the developing techniques of weather and climate modification are to be used intelligently, the human consequences of deliberate or inadvertent intervention need to be anticipated before they are upon us.” But these issues continue to be under-explored.

Articles tend to say that studies do not show that the silver iodide has a negative impact to life on earth but then it is hard to know whether detailed studies have been done.

In an article by Caroline Haskins for The Outline in March 2018, she writes:

One of the most urgent ambiguities about cloud seeding is the effect that silver iodide could have on living things. The U.S. National Library of Medicine notes that the compound has no known “ill effects” on people, although people’s “hands may have remained yellowed for weeks” after being exposed to it.

Sebastián Sánchez-Fortún, a toxicologist at Madrid's Complutense University who has studied how silver iodide affects ecosystems, said in an email the cloud seeding agent may have a moderate negative effect on land and water-based life if it’s applied excessively and over a long period of time. However, he noted that his findings were based in a laboratory, which may not completely reflect real ecosystems.

But also, let’s not forget the US experienced its worst tornado out break to date during the off-season. Tornado season is from March to June and this outbreak occurred in December 2021. Catastrophic fires. Recored hitting heat waves. Floods, just terrible flooding. Is this the result of cows grazing on pasture or the millions spent messing with an entity (Nature) that we don’t fully understand?

Cloud seeding and politics

The reality of cloud seeding prevents me from voting for any sort of climate policy, especially any sort of climate policy that seeks to shrink the freedoms of the citizens. I will always reject a carbon tax, climate lock downs, banning gas powered vehicles, etc. The government cannot limit me while engaging in actual climate changing behavior. I will not be fear-mongered into an “end of the world” saga with a government that wants to make me smaller.

I will steward the earth well. I will reduce, reuse and recycle. I will monitor my consumption— not because of government threat or coercion, but because I am a conscientious individual and I want to leave a healthy planet for my children.

Have you heard of cloud seeding before? Did you know we are actively modifying the weather?