In Brief

• The Facts:

  China has publicly revealed plans to drastically expand an experimental weather modification program to cover an area of over 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles) -- more than 1.5 times the total size of India.

• Reflect On:

  • How long have weather modification programs been in operation?

  • What are, and have been, the consequences of such activity?

  • Why do these progrms happen in secret for so long, without humanity having a say in this direction?

China announced that it’s planning a rapid expansion to its weather modification program. Most people probably didn’t know that China even had a weather modification program. The changes include modifying the climate in an area that is more than one and a half times the size of India, covering an area of over 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles).

In fact, China has been modifying their weather for decades and they’ve used the technology at local levels as well. They were quite open about modifying the weather for clear skies ahead of and during the 2008 Olympics.

According to the Guardian,

“The proposed enlargement is on a scale that could affect regional weather patterns. The cabinet said it wanted to extend the artificial rain and snow programme to cover at least 2.1m sq miles (5.5m sq km) of land by 2025. The long-term plan envisages that by 2035, the country’s weather modification capabilities would reach an “advanced” level and focus on revitalising rural regions, restoring ecosystems and minimising losses from natural disasters.”

In 2017, China showered $175 million on a weather-modification system designed to bring more precipitation to a region that makes up about 10% of the country’s territory. A year later, Chinese defense companies were supposedly building fuel-burning chambers intended to produce vast amounts of precipitation along the Tibetan plateau. It’s not just China that has engaged in such activity, it was used by the US during the Vietnam war as well via Operation Popeye.

Even before the latest announcement, Indian websites have speculated that China is weaponizing the weather and may already be disrupting rainfall patterns. There is little credible evidence, but China would not be alone in trying to alter the weather for strategic purposes.

General Electric started to conduct their first weather modification experiments in 1946. In 2012, Iran accused Israel and the United States of modifying their climate for warfare purposes, and did so again in 2018. According to then president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez, prior to his death, 

“The US Navy launched a weapon capable of inducing a powerful earthquake on Haiti. This time it was only a drill, and the final part of it is destroying and taking over Iran.”

Former President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez

How long has this been going on for? A United States government document printed at the request of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation in November 1978 states,

“Weather modification is generally considered to be the deliberate effort to improve atmospheric conditions for beneficial human purposes. Not all weather modification activities, however, have been designed to benefit everyone, and have been used for purposes of war….In addition to specific research programs sponsored by Federal agencies, there are other functions related to weather modification which are performed in several places in the executive branch. Various federal advisory panels and committees and their staffs -established to conduct in-depth studies and prepare reports, to provide advice or recommendations, or to coordinate weather modification programs – have been housed and supported within executive departments, agencies, or offices.”

Weather Modification Programs, Problems, Policy and Potential

Dr. Michel Chossudovsky, a University of Ottawa Emeritus Professor of Economics writes in an article he wrote on his website:

“The significant expansion in America’s weather warfare arsenal, which is a priority of the Department of Defense is not a matter for debate or discussion. While environmentalists blame the Bush administration for not having signed the Kyoto protocol, the issue of “weather warfare”, namely the manipulation of weather patterns for military use, is never mentioned.” - Dr. Michel Chossudovsky

The US Air Force has the capability to manipulate climate either for testing purposes or for outright military-intelligence use.  These capabilities extend to the triggering of floods, hurricanes, droughts, and earthquakes. This comes directly from one (of many) of their documents.

Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally… It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence  purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog, and storms on earth or to modify space weather, … and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of technologies which can provide substantial increase in US, or degraded capability in an adversary, to achieve global awareness, reach, and power. - Weather as a force multiplier: Owning the Weather In 2025

The practice today is referred to as “geoengineering” and climate change/global warming seems to be the justification for it. But as with many other issues, they always seem to be used for purposes other than what the pubic receives as justification. With what has happened with crises like COVID-19 and terrorism, governments claim more control, surveillance and authoritarianism under the guise of ‘protection & safety.’

Below is a video of then CIA director John O. Brennan giving his support for weather modification programs.

Many universities around the globe are now working on large scale artificial intervention technologies to alter the Earth’s climate in response to climate change. Yale is one and Harvard is another. These programs involve a host of interventions. One popular one seems to be the idea of spraying particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the planet, as explained by Nature in 2018 when Harvard researchers announced they were going to start conducting experiments. Typical particles used to spray into the atmosphere and reflect sunlight away from earth would be; Sulphate/Sulphuric Acid/Sulphur Dioxide, Titania, Silicon Carbide, Calcium Carbonate, Alumina, Silica, Zinc Oxide.

Researcher David W. Keith is a professor of Applied Physics for the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). He seems to be in support of these interventions and is actively working on them. A few years ago he stated that this type of wide-scale intervention “may end up killing many tens of thousands of people a year as a direct result of that decision.”

We cannot forget about the environmental and ecological impacts as well. These could be catastrophic as so many other human interventions and developments have been.

According to a 2015 paper published in Current Science, by Dr. Marvin Herndon, PhD., a nuclear chemist and geochemist, we are already seeing the impacts.

The abstract reads as follows:

“In response to an urgent call through an article in Current Science for assistance to understand the geological association of high aluminum mobility with human health in the Ganga Alluvial Plain, I describe evidence of clandestine geoengineering activity that has occurred for at least 15 years, and which has escalated sharply in the last two years. The geoengineering activity via tanker-jet aircraft emplaces a non-natural, toxic substance in the Earth’s atmosphere which with rainwater liberates highly mobile aluminum. Further, I present evidence that the toxic substance is coal combustion fly ash. Clandestine dispersal of coal fly ash and the resulting liberation of highly mobile aluminum, I posit, is an underlying cause of the widespread and pronounced increase in neurological diseases and as well as the currently widespread and increasing debilitation of Earth’s biota. Recommendations are made for verifying whether the evidence presented here is applicable to the Ganga Alluvial Plain.”

Aluminum poisoning of humanity and Earth’s biota by clandestine geoengineering activity: implications for India

The idea that this type of activity has already been happening is not novel. 

“In recent years there has been a decline in the support for weather modification research, and a tendency to move directly into operational projects.” - World Meteorological Association (2007)

How much power should government have? They continue to and have engaged in measures they deem necessary, yet the majority of people would agree to not allow this happen. Throughout history, the will of the people has been ignored whilst justification for government measures to tackle problems are pushed forth and justified. What are the consequences on the environment of such an intervention? There are so many unknowns and unanswered questions when you start messing with nature in such a manner.