Conspiracy and cloud-seeding: I am writing this blog as a reminder of the negative effect that conspiracy theorists in the United States have on science, as well as to investigate the validity of an interesting concept – cloud seeding. The U.S. Congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who is well-known for her wacky ideas and conspiracy theories has introduced a bill entitled “Clear Skies Act” which would impose a federal ban on weather modification. Apart from the fact that the antecedents of this bill are concocted fiction typical of her rampant paranoia that the democrats are responsible for everything bad that happens – she echoes her boss, Donald Trump, in this respect – the initial impression of the bill contains an attractive idea – is it a good idea to try and manipulate mother nature. Certainly, mankind’s attempts at it in the past have often been short-sighted and counter-productive. However, this bill is actually an attack on science and knowledge, which is typical of her ilk.
Majorie Taylor-Greene has reported claimed that “Yes, they control the weather” after Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina last September – she said this in the context that democrats did this to manipulate voter turnout in the elections. I can only comment that the democrats would love to be able to do this, but it’s impossible. Andrew Dessler, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M university stated clearly, “it is not possible for cloud-seeding to have caused extreme rainfall and flooding.” However, reports of cloud-seeding experiments, which disperse chemicals, usually silver iodide, into the atmosphere from planes, can easily be interpreted by conspiracy theorists as evidence for all sorts of things from weather control to pandemics and population control. Unfortunately, nutty people in high political positions can use all this to support their agendas regardless of whether there is any truth in it or not. I would probably think that Marjorie Taylor-Greene actually believes this nonsense, but the Trump Administration adopted it because it suits their purpose of encouraging any and all attacks on the democrats. Science suffers, ignorance rises, and both are detrimental to the country.
Now to the science of cloud-seeding itself.
Cloud-seeding has been carried out in America since the discovery of its effects were discovered by scientists at the General Electric Research Laboratories in New York in 1940. Although the efficiency of this technique remains controversial, a study in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology in 2014, found it can increase rainfall by 15% – nowhere near enough to cause flooding and devastation. Jonathan Jennings, a meteorologist who directs the cloud-seeding program in the Utah Division of Water Resources, one of the state’s main water agencies, said it is useful as part of a broad water-management strategy. The main use is to cause snow in the winter, thickening the snowpack and thus increasing the flow of rivers in the Spring and Summer, rather than to cause rain when there is a drought.
The federal government does not carry out cloud-seeding, but nine states, exclusively in the West, have active programs. The practice has been conducted quietly for many years but, since the rise of conspiracy theorists and theories, it has become a target for bad faith and worse science from nutcases and political opportunists. Scientists have been threatened to the point of needing physical protection and reactionary politicians have passed laws in Florida which ban “geoengineering and weather modification” in blanket, vague, legislation. The end result is, and will be, a serious reduction in scientific studies, knowledge of the effects of cloud-seeding and, particularly in the West of the U.S., a significant reduction the availability of water, which is already at a critical shortage level. Range wars over water, which are currently at a local level, will increase and become a state-versus-state controversy, particularly among those states sharing the water from the Colorado River. The political opportunists/conspiracy theorists/nutcases leading the current opposition to cloud-seeding should be held responsible for their actions and stupidity.
“A butterfly flaps its wings in the forests of Brazil, and weeks later, a storm unleashes its fury over Texas.” Mess with rainfall in Texas and New England might feel the consequences. Cause and effect. Here in the UK we frequently suffer the impact of storms which have swept through the USA.