First let me say that I have a healthy skepticism about both scientific claims and their detractors. Some of it does have the whiff of a conspiracy theory.
However, I have always been wary of experiments such as cloud seeding hurricanes. The theory is that they will rain at sea and expend their energy there. That is a
theory, but what if it goes haywire.(see below reference). It is hard to prove whether man or nature has caused the damage or a combination of both. I believe we need to
be very careful when experimenting with nature because the "Law of Unintended Consequences" can be deadly. Here are some interesting cases.
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If you're still not convinced man can - and does - make his own disasters, consider the recent Midwest flooding, which wiped out homes and businesses and devastated crops to the tune of $8.5 billion or more. This June 2008 flood is being cited as a vivid example of the effects of global warming.
No one has mentioned cloud seeding as a cause, even though government officials and climatologists both know that North Dakota's cloud modification project (
http://www.swc.state.nd.us/4dlink9/4dcgi/GetSubContentPDF/PB-1704/Jun08.pdf)which began on June 1 this year, is an experiment in weather modification via seeding clouds with hygroscopic flares. The now-legendary Midwest flood began on June 12, less than two weeks after cloud seeding began, and was preceded by eight days of unusually heavy rain in Minnesota - rain which weather experts describe as "substantially exceeding the historical average ".
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The U.S. government itself has largely gotten out of the weather modification business, first because it needs to keep a low profile, but mostly because the United Nations (of which the U.S. is a part) forbids environmental modification techniques of this sort.
Not that the military, and the government, aren't still trying. In 2006 , Senate Bill 527 and HB 2995 both aimed at permitting experimental weather modification. Fortunately, both failed.
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Floods aside, consider hurricanes and Project Cirrus , which took place on the 13th of October, 1947. A U.S. Navy plane, under the direction of scientists from General Electric, flew into a developing hurricane and dropped 176 pounds of dry ice.
Before the experiment, the hurricane was still safely offshore. After the drop, the storm changed direction and hit shore near Savannah, Georgia, leaving 1,400 people homeless and two dead. Property damage was incalculable.
The U.S. military later classified the operation to prevent litigation, but hasn't really stopped trying to control Mother Nature. In the wake of a few more tragedies like Katrina , future hurricane modification will likely involve dispersion of soot particles, which would refract sunlight and create regional cooling that would alter the hurricane's path, since temperature is the primary inducement of hurricane activity. But don't expect the government, or its military arm, to ‘fess up if things go wrong.
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On a final note, David Booth of the British Geological Survey cites the inherent dangers of dams, which - by holding enormous volumes of water in one place - increase pressure on subsurface formations that can trigger earthquakes. To make his point, Booth cites the Koyna, India quake of 1967 , which triggered a magnitude 7.5 seismic event that killed 200 and injured thousands of others.
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http://www.celsias.com/article/ecology-101-how-engineer-natural-disaster/Who is up to what? I'm not sure, and I as I said it is hard to sort out. However, the government has shown a complete lack of concern about its citizens in a lot of cases. Google HAARP. Sounds like sci-fi, but who knows. "Trust no one."
:hide: :tinfoilhat:
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