Air, Weather, and Climate History Blog
New York Times, June 28, 2010 by Cornelia Dean, “When the Day After Tomorrow has Come,”
[Fleming maintains that] “geoengineering proposals are “untested, untestable and dangerous beyond belief.” He fits them neatly into what he calls “a long tradition of imaginative and speculative literature involving the ‘control’ of nature.” Read more…
The hokum and hubris of geoengineering our climate
FIXING the weather is an old science fiction standby. Today, some believe we can fix our atmosphere’s ills by geoengineering the climate. Science historian James Rodger Fleming is having none of it. Read more…
Seminarium med James R Fleming: ”Fixing the Sky: Historical perspectives on weather and climate control”… Read more
From an interview with Sandra Chung:
When I was a student of atmospheric science, I became aware of weather control, but I wasn’t convinced about its usefulness. There was a military guy, a corporal. He was trying to get his master’s degree in atmospheric science as part of an Air Force rotation. His project was to shoot laser beams at clouds to see if he could make them get bigger and angrier. It never worked. But he had this mindset, well what do you do with a cloud? You shoot at it. Read more…
What counts as knowledge? This new book on the history of weather and climate engineering triggered a 2009 invitation from the US House Committee on Science and Technology to present testimony and answer questions. Now the US General Accountability Office has asked for my input to a study of climate change response strategies. History should inform sound public policy, and this is an example in which “history matters” to more than just historians.
Study the past. Without history, technocrats with nothing more than current “best science” perspectives will be running the show and trying to “fix the sky” with some very heavy-handed techniques.