Cloud Seeding; The Confirmed Weather Modification Program
There’s an undeniable human desire to manipulate every aspect of our world and the weather is no different. In our attempt to achieve this, the prospect of geoengineering has become a very real and very contentious reality. And while debates over chemtrails continue to rage, discussion of cloud seeding receives less attention, despite its recognized use.
For decades, millions of dollars have been spent implementing cloud seeding technology near ski resorts, bodies of water, and areas experiencing drought, yet scientific institutions studying the practice often describe its actual efficacy as unproven or highly conflicted. So, why do they keep doing it and is it safe?
What is Cloud Seeding?
Discovered by Vincent Shaefer, before it was refined by Kurt Vonnegut’s brother Bernard, the most common cloud seeding technology involves the dispersion of silver iodide in cloud water. Vonnegut and colleagues discovered the reaction while working for GE in Schenectady, NY in 1946.
Those familiar with Kurt Vonnegut’s seminal novel, Cat’s Cradle, might not be surprised to learn his brother’s cloud seeding discovery became the impetus for the notorious Ice-nine – the water polymorph developed to solidify mud for soldiers’ convenience, but which turned out to kill them upon contact with bodily tissue.
In reality, silver iodide isn’t the deadly compound Vonnegut imagined, but it’s use in manipulating weather has certainly sparked conspiracy and skepticism; particularly when it comes to weaponizing the weather.
And the U.S. government did, in fact, attempt to use cloud seeding to weaponize the weather during the Vietnam war. The once-classified Operation Popeye invoked rainfall in north Vietnam with cloud seeding missions conducted over a five-year period. According to documents later declassified, the operation was credited with increasing rainfall by 35 inches – more than four times the average annual rainfall in certain parts of the American southwest.
Contrary to the intention of Vonnegut’s imagined Ice-nine, the military anticipated cloud seeding technology to create mud and flooding in Vietnam, making it difficult for enemy troops to move efficiently.
Though the operation was claimed a success, it was eventually discontinued, possibly due to ambiguities in how that success was measured, as well as a Geneva treaty prohibiting weather weaponization. Since then, the military hasn’t admitted to any further cloud seeding, though it has been accused of it.
Is Cloud Seeding Safe?
Cloud seeding with silver iodide is allegedly safe as the amount of the compound used in a single session is pretty minuscule – typically 10 to 50 grams. The only reactions to the compound are listed as discoloration of the skin, but only after years of exposure. Pilots who have worked extensively with the compound have reported it turning their hands temporarily yellow.
Environmentally there seems to be little risk of contamination in water sources or crops, though some of the secondary effects have led to catastrophe in the past.
In 1952, a cloud seeding experiment dubbed Operation Cumulus, caused torrential downpours in Lynmouth, a small village in Devon, England – 35 people were subsequently killed after flooding destroyed homes, businesses, and local infrastructure.
More recently in 2009, flooding in the Saudi capital of Jeddah led to the deaths of 122 people after 2.76 inches of rain fell in just four hours – this was double the average annual rainfall and was believed to have been caused by cloud seeding. Similar incidents have occurred in other middle eastern countries that have attempted to use the technology to fight drought and arid climate.
Meanwhile, other countries have accused those with cloud seeding practices of stealing rain and precipitation from them. Something one might perceive to be a harbinger of weather modification warfare in the future. When everyone tries to control the weather, there will inevitably be disproportionate accumulations favoring those with more resources that can influence Mother Nature.
Cloud Seeding Conspiracy
There are also larger overarching concerns with weather manipulation technology when it comes to those polluting and degrading the environment. Though maybe less of a case with cloud seeding, weather manipulation could dissuade corporations and major polluters from cleaning up their act. Why switch practices that negatively impact the weather, when you could just pay to control it?
That pay for precipitation problem could become even more exacerbated and convoluted when the über wealthy start paying $100,000 to have clouds “overseeded” in order to prevent rain on their wedding day – but wait, this is actually a service one could currently purchase today. In fact, a large percentage of cloud seeding technology is used to benefit wealthy parts of the world where people want more precipitation for recreational activities or unsustainable farming and water use habits. Instead of curbing wasteful practices and reversing long-term detrimental trends, our solution is to engineer temporary or short-term solutions by essentially trying to hack the system.
And this has become the case with certain solutions to climate change, including Harvard scientist David Keith, who proposed spraying aerosols into the atmosphere to increase the planet’s albedo (its reflectivity). Keith says he believes injecting sulfuric acid into the upper reaches of the atmosphere could reflect enough sunlight to counter act rising global temperatures caused by climate change.
His proposal includes the use of hundreds and eventually thousands of annual flights with the sole purpose of spraying chemicals into the atmosphere to manipulate the weather. The only problem, which he admits himself, is that once this process was underway, it might have to continue indefinitely, eventually dumping millions of tons of chemicals into air.
Is it any surprise people are convinced that something like this is already underway?
For more on weather modification watch this episode of Open Minds with Dane Wigington:
About the Author
HAARP; A U.S. Conspiracy Theory Magnet
In 1993, The US Air Force began construction on a $290 million project that would enable the government’s foremost atmospheric researchers to study the ionosphere — the top layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. The research center, now run by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, is called the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, and is located in the frozen wilderness of Gakona, Alaska. For a number of reasons, HAARP’s activities have drawn the attention of citizens who are suspicious of the organization’s practices.
Over the years, HAARP has been officially credited with conducting useful and successful research, but because of its highly complex work, officials claim its purpose has been largely misunderstood by detractors. For this reason, it has been ground zero for criticism since its inception.
Situated in the remote wilderness of an already low-population state — purportedly to promote secrecy — HAARP features 360 radio transmitters, 180 antennas, and 5 powerful generators that create geometric patterns in every direction when turned on. The antennas, each a foot thick and stretching 72 feet into the sky, continue to raise eyebrows.
A section of the HAARP antenna field.
Shortly after the facility opened, the public began reporting strange phenomena — not only in the region, but around the world. Activists challenged HAARP’s activities, vocally questioning what the organization was really up to. While the government continues to deny any connection with changes in weather, frequencies of earthquakes, and chemtrails in the skies, it has made deliberate efforts to quell suspicions about the nature of its operations. Yet these are not nearly enough to quiet HAARP’s notable detractors, including former Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez and former Minnesota Governor, Jesse Ventura.
Ventura questioned whether the government was using HAARP to manipulate the weather or overwhelm citizens with mind-controlling radio waves. While the Air Force acknowledged that Ventura had made an official request to visit the research station, he and his crew nevertheless were denied access.
