Climate weapons against Russia - myth or truth?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

We asked forecasters to comment on the "question of climate weapons" and finally just answer - is this a real thing or nonsense?

The State Duma deputy sounds the alarm: in our abnormally warm winter, according to him, the United States is to blame. Scientists twist their fingers at their temples in response, but make a reservation: in principle, the effect on the weather is possible. But how effective is it?

On May 29, 2017, a hurricane hit Moscow, resulting in casualties - 18 people died. Then rumors spread that the Americans had used secret technology against us to influence the weather. Since then, any natural disaster - be it an unprecedented heat, storm or flood - has been accompanied by talk about the notorious US climate weapon.

This winter was no exception.

And the Senate is looking for the "hand of Moscow"

On the morning of January 16, the first temperature record of 2020 was recorded in Moscow: the thermometer showed +3, 1 ° C, which has not happened in the capital since 1925. A day earlier, State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlev said that, in his opinion, they used climate weapons against our country.

“I don’t exclude this,” he reasoned on the air of the radio station “Moscow speaking”. - Today America uses everything that is possible in advanced technologies. I am sure these are not accidental climatic changes. As we know, they tested climate weapons in Vietnam. Of course, these developments are underway, although they are prohibited. And they do it not as a weapon, but as research. Research is possible, but weapons are not."

Deputy Zhuravlev suggested that the goal of the adversary, for example, is to destroy the permafrost in Russia (“if it floats, it will be a disaster and a big problem; the Americans know this and are testing weapons”), and in the long term, all these experiments (research, tests) will lead to the disappearance of the ozone layer of the Earth and the destruction of life.

Forecasters and climatologists called the parliamentarian's version "sheer nonsense." Leading specialist of the Phobos weather center, Evgeny Tishkovets, recalled that it is not always possible to even disperse the clouds over Moscow before the holidays, what kind of climatic weapon is there. Yes, and on the territory of the United States itself, so many natural disasters have happened in recent months and years that it is time for Americans to think about who could benefit from it. By the way, some people think about it. As the scientific director of the Hydrometeorological Center Roman Vilfand noted in an interview with RBC, “now the Atlantic cyclones are entering the United States more often, and there are also voices in the Senate that this may be the“hand of Moscow”."

The Washington Regional Committee is working

The same deputy Zhuravlev voiced the hypothesis about the use of climatic weapons by the Americans six months ago, when the temperature dropped sharply in the European part of Russia, there were showers in Moscow, and forests were burning in Siberia.

“I think they are testing climate weapons. This summer cannot be, we all understand that it cannot be. Well, the Washington regional committee is working,”the parliamentarian stated.

“The issue of climatic weapons comes up regularly and, mind you, it is always not from the lips of experts. This is such a "long-playing" nonsense, - shares his opinion with AiF.ru climatologist, leading researcher at the Main Geophysical Observatory. Voeikova Andrey Kiselev. - If someone makes attempts to create a climate weapon, they are still futile, because it will be much less reliable compared to other types of weapons.

In addition, let me remind you that in the mid-1970s (by the way, on the initiative of the USSR) the "Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Means of Influencing the Natural Environment" was adopted. Imagine what would begin in the highest political circles if there were at least some “tangible” reasons to suspect someone of violating the convention. So I don’t believe it.”

Officially, no country in the world has admitted that it has ever developed climatic (or geophysical, that is, one that affects the entire natural environment, including the lithosphere, hydrosphere, ionosphere, etc.) weapons. Nevertheless, similar technologies are used - primarily for the notorious dispersal of clouds for the holidays. It is believed that this method of influencing the weather was originally developed just for military purposes.

And the Americans during the Vietnam War (here deputy Zhuravlev is right) successfully used it. By spraying silver iodide and dry ice over the clouds during the rainy season, they caused showers where they needed them. This led to the flooding of rice fields and the erosion of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, along which the Vietnamese guerrillas were supplied with equipment and weapons. Nevertheless, the Americans were not very happy: the effect was short-lived, and the financial costs for reagents and air sorties were enormous.

Since then, nothing has been heard about the climate development of the Pentagon, except for conspiracy theories regarding the HAARP project. This research facility, located in Alaska, is designed to study the Earth's ionosphere and is under the control of the Pentagon. Subordination to the military department has a simple explanation: knowledge of the ionosphere is necessary for the development of missile defense. But the conspiracy theorists came up with their own arguments. The United States, they are sure, built the HAARP complex, because its antennas are capable of influencing the weather, turning off enemy satellites, disrupting communications where required, and even controlling the minds of people. And also cause terrible disasters - droughts, floods and hurricanes.

Antennas of the HAARP complex in Alaska. Source: Public Domain / Michael Kleiman, US Air Force

Where to get so much energy?

There is no doubt that the impact on the weather in the camp of a potential enemy looks very tempting both for the military and for politicians. The advantages of this technology, if you master it, are obvious. A series of natural disasters can cause colossal damage to the economy - say, affect yields and agricultural production, provoke a recession, and then a crisis in the country. There will be dissatisfaction with the authorities, confusion and vacillation in the minds.

Then political strategists and experts on "color" revolutions join in, organize another Maidan, overthrow the government - and it's in the bag. And most importantly, who will be able to prove that a catastrophic drought and a hurricane are the work of human hands, and not the anger of Mother Nature?

However, scientists argue that these fantasies have no scientific basis under them. Simply put, humanity simply does not have enough energy to simulate natural disasters.

“All those anomalies that are trying to explain the use of climatic weapons, in one form or another, occurred earlier - 100 or 150 years ago, when there could be no question of any methods of actively influencing the atmosphere,” explains the head of the climatology laboratory at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vladimir Semyonov. - The reasons for these anomalies lie in physical processes, which we understand well, but, unfortunately, we cannot always predict.

Why is it impossible to create climate weapons?

The energies of atmospheric processes are so great that in order to change the nature of atmospheric circulation (namely, this leads to extreme weather events), it would be necessary to spend all the energy that man produces on the planet. Cyclones that determine weather anomalies are spinning tops of enormous size, their mass is tens and hundreds of millions of tons. Try to change their trajectory - it's almost impossible.

In principle, it is possible to influence the radiation properties of the atmosphere (absorption of solar radiation or outgoing long-wave radiation), but methods such as spraying aerosols or increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases cannot be “focused” on any one country. They will still lead to global changes.

If you look at the map of temperature anomalies in December, you can see that the entire globe is, to one degree or another, covered with spots of strong positive temperature shifts. This is what is called "global warming". But its reasons are not at all in the mythical climatic weapon."