Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene recently announced her intention to introduce a bill that would make “weather modification” a felony offense. This proposed legislation, stemming from long-debunked conspiracy theories, seeks to prohibit the “injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity.”
The premise of the bill is rooted in baseless claims that governments or shadowy organizations are intentionally manipulating weather patterns to cause natural disasters, such as the recent deadly floods in Texas. While legitimate, limited-scale weather modification techniques like cloud seeding exist (primarily to encourage rain or snow in drought-stricken areas), scientists and meteorologists universally dismiss the idea that these methods could create or control massive weather events like hurricanes or widespread flooding. Experts have clarified that such large-scale atmospheric phenomena are driven by complex natural forces far beyond human manipulation.
The proposal has drawn widespread criticism and concern for its embrace of unsubstantiated theories and its potential to distract from real climate challenges. Critics argue that instead of addressing the tangible impacts of climate change, this bill promotes misinformation, undermines scientific understanding, and diverts legislative focus to fantastical notions. The very idea of criminalizing a non-existent threat to the weather underscores the disconnect from scientific reality that some political discourse now exhibits.
