Latest news with #geoengineering
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marjorie Taylor Greene rants ‘they' are controlling the weather
Far right-wing Congresswoman and conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene raged that an unspecified 'they' are controlling the weather on X. 'First, they said we were crazy for saying they are controlling the weather and spraying chemicals in our skies,' the MAGA loyalist wrote. 'Now, they are admitting that they are controlling the weather and spraying chemicals in our skies, BUT that it's not causing any harm.' Like many conspiracy pushers, Greene, who once claimed space lasers operated by prominent Jewish bankers might be to blame for California wildfires, frequently uses 'they' to describe a vaguely defined liberal 'deep state' that operates in secrecy. 'Call me crazy, I don't care. but I'll go ahead and say it,' Greene continued before declaring 'weather modification and geoengineering is deadly and dangerous' and said 'they' can't prove otherwise. The 51-year-old firebrand said she's championing a bill that will ban those practices without providing evidence on a meaningful level that either such process exists. Greene's rant lambasted 'the government and companies' she claims profit from manipulating the weather without further explanation Friday. Her suspicions about government don't seem to have subsided since her party took control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in January. 'We aren't lab rats and weather is not a controlled environment,' Greene's post concluded. Social media platforms like X frequently hum with unsubstantiated claims of weather manipulation when meteorological disasters occur, like the severe flooding that claimed more than 120 lives in Texas over the past week. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin released a statement Thursday saying his team 'shares the significant reservations many Americans have when it comes to geoengineering activities' and would investigate the matter. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in December the United States is 'years away from being ready to detect a solar geoengineering effort, but is on the leading edge.' _____
E&E News
16 hours ago
- Politics
- E&E News
Marjorie Taylor Greene pledges probe into geoengineering
On a day when the EPA administrator elevated concerns about weather modification as his agency downplayed those worries, an outspoken House Republican said she would hold a hearing on the issue. In a statement provided to POLITICO's E&E News, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said she plans to use her perch as a subcommittee chair on the House Oversight and Government Reform panel to investigate geoengineering, a nascent field in which chemicals are dispersed in the air to lower temperatures. 'Let's be clear: Weather modification is no longer a 'conspiracy theory.' It's real, it's happening, and the American people deserve a voice,' said Greene, who in the past has peddled fringe theories. Advertisement Such baseless assertions have been widespread in the aftermath of the deadly floods in Texas this past weekend, including that cloud seeding may have played a role in the disaster.
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
EPA head promises 'total transparency' on geoengineering and contrails as weather conspiracy theories swirl
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday appeared to nod to conspiracy theories that have swirled around recent extreme weather events, directing people to the agency's website for science-based information on geoengineering and contrails. In a post on X, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said that people 'have legitimate questions about contrails and geoengineering, and they deserve straight answers.' 'We're publishing everything EPA knows about these topics on these websites,' he wrote in a news release Thursday that promised 'total transparency with the American public.' 'EPA shares the significant reservations many Americans have when it comes to geoengineering activities," he said. The new websites offer a variety of information that appears to stick closely to generally accepted definitions and science around geoengineering and the government's ongoing research on contrails. Some sections even debunk the more outlandish claims of government weather control. 'Has large-scale solar geoengineering deployment already happened?' the EPA's new 'Frequent Questions' section asks, answering: 'No. The U.S. government is not engaged in any form of outdoor solar geoengineering testing (e.g., small-scale experiments designed to study injection technologies) or large-scale deployment (e.g., intentional use of SRM to cool the Earth).' SRM refers to solar radiation modification. Severe weather events have hammered parts of the United States in recent days. In Texas, at least 120 people have died and 173 are still missing after a devastating flood wiped out at least six communities July 4. Four days later, in New Mexico, at least three people died after a flood in Ruidoso, a resort town already susceptible to mudslides and runoff after two catastrophic fires last year. Scientifically baseless claims of weather control have become an increasingly common reaction to extreme weather, moving from the fringe and into some mainstream discourse. Many of these claims center on fears of government control of the weather, with some pointing to technologies like cloud seeding, a technique used to increase rain and snowfall. Others offer a vague assertion that whatever is happening to the weather is not natural. 'Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake,' Kandiss Taylor, a Republican congressional candidate in Georgia, said in a July 5 post on X about the Texas flood, now pinned on her page. The inclusion of contrails, a natural phenomenon from aircraft or rockets, also seemed to point to long-running conspiracy theories about 'chemtrails,' which have included repeatedly debunked claims of shadowy programs meant to poison Americans. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has repeated chemtrail misinformation, welcomed Zeldin's move. 'Im so proud of my friend Lee Zeldin and President Donald Trump for their commitment to finally shatter the Deep State Omerta regarding the diabolical mass poisoning of our people, our communities, our waterways and farms, and our purple mountains, majesty,' he wrote in a post on X in reply to Zeldin. The EPA resources Zeldin pointed to, however, offered no evidence of a diabolical plot. The new EPA page on contrails seeks to address 'myths and misconceptions that have persisted for decades,' according to the release. The page says that sometimes, chemicals are intentionally 'sprayed from aircraft for legitimate purposes like firefighting or farming' and that the 'federal government is not aware of there ever being a contrail intentionally formed over the United States for the purpose of geoengineering or weather modification.' The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it is against its policy to comment on statements made by anyone outside the agency but later added that it is "aware of recent threats against weather radar sites and is working with local and other authorities in monitoring the situation closely.' The National Weather Service, the Department of Health and Human Services and the EPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Solar geoengineering activities involve cooling the Earth by reflecting sunlight into space through the dispersal of small particles into the upper atmosphere or by increasing the size and brightness of clouds over the ocean, among other ideas. Meteorologist Matthew Cappucci noted that any claims that current geoengineering technologies can cause or worsen severe weather are false. 'The conspiracy theories swarming around on social media have been disappointing, particularly considering elected officials have been pushing them,' he said. 'The conspiracies have no scientific basis, and even a shred of basic scientific literacy debunks them.' Still, claims of weather-control technology, once confined to relatively fringe circles, have gained some traction in the Republican Party. In some states, conservative politicians have passed laws that allude to fringe ideas and seek to ban geoengineering, which is used to counteract the effects of climate change. After Hurricanes Milton and Helene last year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., claimed 'they can control the weather.' On Saturday, she said she was introducing a bill that 'prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity.' 'We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering,' she wrote. Greene added that Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., is a co-sponsor. Burchett has spread similarly bizarre claims about extreme weather. In a statement, a spokesperson for Greene said that the congresswoman "has long discussed this issue" and that the bill was not related to the Texas flooding. In a follow-up email, Greene said she spoke with Zeldin and was encouraged by his move, adding that she looks forward to pursuing her legislation and is happy the topics are getting attention. "This is an uncontrolled experiment being carried out in our skies without consent. It's reckless, it's dangerous, and it must stop," she said in the email. Burchett's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Following Milton and Helene, the NOAA released a fact sheet in October 2024 to try to debunk 'weather modification claims' that swelled after those two storms decimated communities in Florida and North Carolina. In it, the agency said that it 'does not fund or participate in cloud seeding or other weather modification projects.' Zeldin's nod toward more fringe explanations for extreme weather comes as the Trump administration has cut funding for climate change research and removed the website that hosted the government's climate assessments. President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax, even as scientists have increasingly found strong evidence connecting the growing severity and frequency of extreme weather to global warming. Decades of research into weather modification has at times become fodder for conspiracy theorists. From 1962 to 1982, NOAA was involved in a project called STORMFURY that sought to determine whether hurricane intensity could be modified. The research was unsuccessful at altering hurricane intensity and was discontinued. NOAA hasn't attempted similar research since, according to the fact sheet. Cloud seeding is a weather modification technology currently in use. The practice has been around since the 1950s and typically involves spraying silver iodide into clouds to draw water out of the atmosphere and produce extra snow or rain. Currently, cloud seeding programs are primarily used in Western states to boost water supplies, and companies are required to file notices before implementing them. 'Cloud seeding doesn't make water; it helps clouds in marginal environments to release 5-15% more moisture. But in Texas, there was already 100% humidity, extreme moisture and storms. The clouds didn't need any help,' Cappucci said. The spread of these claims has coincided with an uptick in threats directed at meteorologists. While geoengineering is a legitimate scientific endeavor, claims about its ability to control major weather patterns or create severe weather are not grounded in reality. Most geoengineering options are theoretical and untested. Federal researchers have taken only a few small steps toward studying their feasibility, and atmospheric scientists say there is no evidence of any large-scale programs. Last year in Alameda, California, a small-scale testing project of a form of geoengineering called marine cloud brightening by academic scientists was shut down after community outcry, despite researchers demonstrating that the actions were harmless. Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert explained that conspiratorial thinking usually spikes during moments of collective fear and uncertainty, especially during weather events in which people feel powerless. 'Conspiracy theories offer an emotionally satisfying narrative: They restore a sense of control by framing events as intentional acts by powerful agents rather than random, chaotic phenomena,' Alpert told NBC News. 'In this sense, 'someone is doing this to us' feels more tolerable than 'no one is in control.'' However, while some view the EPA's move as an act of transparency, others believe it's merely the latest political maneuver to avoid critical environmental issues. 'Some people have 'questions' about whether birds are real — will that be your next project?' Rep. Don Beyer D-Va., said in response to Zeldin's Thursday morning post on X teasing the EPA guidelines. 'How much taxpayer money will you be spending on this?' This article was originally published on
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
No, Chemtrails Are Not Real or Causing Floods, E.P.A. Says
No, chemtrails are not real, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday, in a notable instance of the Trump administration debunking a conspiracy theory that gained traction amid catastrophic flooding in Central Texas. For decades, scientists have sought to shut down the chemtrails conspiracy theory, which asserts that the federal government is spraying harmful chemicals into the sky to control the weather, population or food supply. On Thursday, their efforts got a major boost from an unexpected source: two new E.P.A. websites that seek to 'provide clear, science-based information' on chemtrail claims as well as on geoengineering, or efforts to intentionally alter Earth's climate. The websites generally endorse the scientific consensus, according to scientists who reviewed them. For example, they note that chemtrails are 'often inaccurately' conflated with contrails, or condensation trails, which are the long, thin clouds left by airplanes as water vapor in jet-engine exhaust condenses and freezes. 'I tasked my team at E.P.A. to compile a list of everything we know about contrails and geoengineering for the purpose of releasing it to you now publicly,' the E.P.A. administrator, Lee Zeldin, said in a video posted on social media. 'Instead of simply dismissing these questions and concerns as baseless conspiracies, we're meeting them head on,' Mr. Zeldin said. 'We did the legwork, looked at the science, consulted agency experts and pulled in relevant outside information to put these online resources together.' Neither Mr. Zeldin nor the sites mentioned the baseless assertions that chemtrails or geoengineering had caused the extreme rainfall that led to the recent Texas flash floods that have killed at least 111 people and left at least 173 missing. Representatives for the E.P.A. did not respond to a request for comment about whether Thursday's move was prompted by the floods. Some Trump officials and Republican lawmakers have used their platforms to amplify the chemtrails conspiracy theory. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, has suggested without evidence that the Defense Department's research arm is spraying Americans with harmful chemicals that have been added to jet fuel. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Gizmodo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Gizmodo
Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Going After ‘Chemtrails' With New Bill to Ban Weather Modification
House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is the latest lawmaker to seemingly go after the fictional threat of chemtrails. Over the weekend, Greene stated she will soon introduce a federal bill aimed at banning substances from being injected into the atmosphere. Greene announced the proposed bill in an X post published Saturday. The legislation would reportedly bar chemicals from being released into the air for the 'express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity.' While the bill is apparently a response to the completely not real dangers of chemtrails, it would target actual, potentially important technologies like cloud seeding and other forms of geoengineering. 'We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering,' Greene said in her X post. I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity. It will be a felony offense. I have been researching weather… — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 5, 2025For the conspiracy-minded, chemtrails are purportedly the streaky visible remnants of chemicals being poured into the atmosphere by high-flying planes. These chemicals are claimed to be biological weapons developed by the military to sicken people or the toxic byproducts of nefarious scientific experiments, depending on which conspiracy nut you ask. While weather modification is a common theme of chemtrails, concepts like population control are also a regular part of the conspiracy. Conspiracy Theories Flourish as Mystery 'Drones' Spotted Across U.S. Greene doesn't explicitly mention chemtrails in her post about the new legislation. But it's modeled after a similar state bill in Florida (SB-56) that Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law last month (the law bans the airborne release of chemicals intended for geoengineering or weather modification, with a potential third-degree felony charge and fines up to $100,000 for violators). That said, proponents of the Florida law and similar bills in other states have directly referenced chemtrails as a target of their legislative efforts. In reality, what's referred to as chemtrails are actually contrails: the product of condensation that happens when jet fuel exhaust (mostly water vapor and small amounts of soot) mixes with cold, humid air. The only real difference between contrails and naturally formed clouds is that the former are typically made from water crystals, whereas contrails are made from ice crystals. While contrails are falsely labeled chemtrails, geoengineering technologies like cloud seeding are also common bogeymen for the conspiracy-minded. Contrary to what conspiracy theories falsely suggest, these deliberate, large-scale interventions in Earth's climate system aim to mitigate the effects of global warming or to simply alter a region's existing climate. Cloud seeding is just one example. This 80-year-old weather modification technique adds particles—usually silver iodide crystals—to clouds to trigger rain or snow. As rising global temperatures increase the frequency and severity of drought, this technology has emerged as a potential way to replenish dried-up water resources. While it's still in the research-and-development stage, small-scale deployments have shown promise in western U.S. states like Utah, where cloud seeding has managed to boost snowpack by 6% to 12% per year. The practice has increased streamflow by roughly 180,000 to 200,000 acre-feet during the spring melt season, which is more water than the state's entire Deer Creek reservoir can hold. In addition to this, cloud seeding has other practical uses. In Canada, it's often used to reduce hail damage. Some U.S. ski resorts, such as Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Beaver Creek in Colorado, have used cloud seeding to enhance their snow cover. The early successes of these programs have garnered attention from U.S. scientists, but this isn't the only atmospheric geoengineering technology gaining interest. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), for example, is researching stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) and marine cloud brightening (MCB). Both technologies aim to lower global temperatures by increasing the amount of sunlight reflected back into space. SAI involves dispersing microscopic, light-reflecting particles into the stratosphere, while MCB seeds low-level marine clouds with sea salt particles to increase their reflectivity. Unlike cloud seeding, neither of these techniques has actually been deployed at scale. Still, burgeoning geoengineering research has some lawmakers spooked. A growing number of states are considering bills to ban geoengineering altogether, citing concerns over unknown risks to the environment and human health. While some of these concerns are scientifically legitimate, others are largely based in conspiracy theories. In 2025 alone, at least 22 states have proposed bills that would ban solar geoengineering technologies, including SAI and MCB, according to the organization SRM360. Greene has long dabbled in conspiracies, having previously endorsed QAnon-fueled theories doubting the 2018 Parkland school shooting and the 9/11 attacks (soon after first taking office in 2021, Greene denounced her past QAnon support). So it's not all too surprising that she's now moved onto weather modification. In October 2024, former President Joe Biden personally rebuked Greene after she implied the federal government created the hurricanes that had recently hit Florida at the time. It's unknown whether Greene will have enough support from her fellow congressmen to advance the proposed legislation. But she's hardly the only GOP or Trump official to have jumped aboard the chemtrails train lately. RFK Jr. Goes Full Tinfoil, Pledges to Stop Chemtrails in Latest Dr. Phil Interview In addition to the newly enshrined Florida law, bills targeting geoengineering have been introduced or passed in at least a dozen other states lately, including Louisiana, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. And in April, during a town hall interview hosted by Dr. Phil (full name Phil McGraw), Health and Human Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reiterated his earlier promise to stop chemtrails at any cost. Chemtrails aren't real, but these sorts of laws advanced by the conspiracy wing of the GOP could certainly cause plenty of actual damage to the development of research and innovations that could help us manage climate change—or even to simply add some snow to ski hills.
