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Federal forecasters has been pressured to deny they control the weather after Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and others unfold misinformation on-line.
The conspiracy unfold by Greene cited info shared on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s web site. She repeatedly claimed earlier this month that “they” and the authorities was manipulating and controlling the weather and referenced a web page about weather modification. Her feedback drew a swift rebuke from President Joe Biden, who mentioned the congresswoman’s feedback had been “beyond ridiculous” and “so stupid.”
Even different GOP members sought to shut her down.
In actuality, NOAA clarified Wednesday, it doesn’t modify the weather or fund, take part in, or oversee cloud seeding or any weather modification.
“NOAA is required by law* to track weather modification activities by others, including cloud seeding, but has no authority to regulate those activities,” it mentioned.
Cloud seeding, the solely widespread weather modification exercise at present practiced in the US, makes an attempt to alter the strategy of a cloud or storm by releasing a substance into the air. It can enhance a cloud’s potential to produce rain or snow, bettering mountain snowpack. It is often executed by non-public firms in western mountain basins, or by these in the desert southwest. The methodology has been used for many years.
While NOAA had supplied help for analysis into whether or not hurricane depth could possibly be modified between 1962 and 1982, often called Project STORMFURY, efforts weren’t profitable in modifying hurricanes and the venture was discontinued. NOAA has not tried something related it since.
The Weather Modification Reporting Act of 1972 requires anybody who intends to have interaction in weather modification actions in the US to present a report to NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad a minimum of 10 days prior to starting the exercise. Those experiences are filed and listed on NOAA’s Central Library web site.
In addition to setting the document straight about “nonexistent weather manipulation technology,” the administration additionally sought to debunk claims about steering hurricanes into particular communities and the use of photo voltaic geoengineering. Solar geoengineering refers to strategies proposed to cool the Earth by reflecting photo voltaic radiation again into house.
“No technology exists that can create, destroy, modify, strengthen or steer hurricanes in any way, shape or form. All hurricanes, including Helene and Milton, are natural phenomena that form on their own due to aligning conditions of the ocean and atmosphere,” NOAA mentioned.
Solar geoengineering, in accordance to NOAA, isn’t going down at scale wherever in the world.
NOAA’s truth test drew swift response on social media from meteorologists.
“Sad this has to be done … But here we are, peak 2024, with NOAA out there stomping the clown show,” NBC 6 South Florida meteorologist Ryan Phillips wrote on X.
“The mass proliferation of conspiracies and willful ignorance is uniquely American. Only here do the uneducated take pride in being uneducated to this extent,” mentioned atmospheric scientist Matthew Cappucci.
Since Hurricane Helene hit the Southeast earlier this month, each the White House and FEMA have additionally been pressured to situation their very own truth sheets, in an try to dispel rampant rumors.
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