Writing on X, the Republican politician said she was creating legislation that would make “the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity” a felony.
…
“I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity,” she wrote. “It will be a felony offense.”
She added: “We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering.”
It’s not pseudo-science. The science behind it is solid. But, weather is very chaotic. It’s known to work to a certain extent, but it has relatively minor effects, it’s very unpredictable, has unpredictable side effects, and is fairly expensive. All you’re really doing is slightly boosting the formation of ice crystals in the clouds by adding a material that will hopefully produce more nucleation sites. It works in a lab, but how well it works up in the atmosphere is unknown. It probably does something, but it’s very hard to get an estimate of your “bang for the buck”.
For example, Beijing tried it during the 2008 Olympics to reduce the chances of rain during the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies. There was a moderate chance of rain predicted to happen during the opening ceremony. The government launched more than 1000 rain dispersal rockets, and it didn’t rain during the opening ceremony. Did the rockets disperse the rain? Or did it simply not rain because that’s not how the clouds developed. Who can say?