Spy agencies could be funding geo-engineering
research in pursuit of weaponising the weather, scientists claims
A leading climate scientist said
calls purportedly from the CIA left him ‘scared’ about the consequences
Sunday 15 February 2015
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A senior American climate scientist has
spoken of the fear he experienced when US intelligence services apparently
asked him about the possibility of weaponising the weather as a major report on
geo-engineering is to be published this week.
Professor Alan Robock stated that three
years ago, two men claiming to be from the CIA had called him to ask whether
experts would be able to tell if hostile forces had begun manipulating the US’s
weather, though he suspected the purpose of the call was to find out if
American forces could meddle with other countries’ climates instead.
During a debate on the use of
geo-engineering to combat climate change, at the annual meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose, California, Prof Robock
said: “I got a phone call from two men who said we work as consultants for the
CIA and we'd like to know if some other country was controlling our climate,
would we know about it?
Climate
change
“At the same time I thought they were
probably also interested in if we could control somebody else's climate, could
they detect it?”
Professor Robock, who has investigated
the potential risks and benefits of using stratospheric particles to simulate
the climate-changing effects of volcanic eruptions, said he felt “scared” when
the approach was made.
“I'd learned of lots of other things
the CIA had done that haven't followed the rules and I thought that wasn't how
I wanted my tax money spent. I think this research has to be in the open and
international so there isn't any question of it being used for hostile
purposes.“
Police tape is
pictured on the Embarcadero, which was closed due to the weather, in San
Francisco ourists
are flocking to a section of China's Yellow River in far greater numbers as
part of the Hukou Waterfall has frozen over in the incredibly cold weather. A Palestinian woman and her
daughter carry their belongings from their flooded family house during heavy
rain in Gaza Cars driving
through flood water in Brisbane central business district Forms of
geo-engineering could be used to offset the effects of global warming, using
methods including scattering sulphur particles in the upper atmosphere to
re-direct sunlight back into space; seeding the oceans with iron to encourage
the spread of carbon-hungry algae; and creating reflective areas on the Earth's
surface.
The long-term effects of such
strategies are largely unknown however, and many experts have expressed fears
that these techniques would carry a great risk.
Professor Robock’s concerns come as a
major report on geo-engineering is to be published this week by the US National
Academy of Sciences. Among the report’s list of sponsors is the “US
intelligence community", which includes Nasa, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, and the US Department of Energy.
The professor alleges that the CIA told
a colleague of his that it wanted to fund the report, but claimed that it
did not want this fact to be too obvious – he added that the CIA is “a major
funder” of the report which “makes me really worried about who is going to be
in control”.
He claimed the US government had a
proven history of using the weather in a hostile way, citing the action of
seeding clouds during the Vietnam War to muddy the Ho Chi Minh foot-trail and
attempt to cut it off, as it was used as a supply route but the north
Vietnamese.
He claimed the CIA had also seeded
clouds over Cuba “to make it rain and ruin the sugar harvest”.
The CIA was not available for comment
at the time of publishing.
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