GAO Report Confirms Cloud Seeding Effectiveness Unproven
31 December 2024 | ZeroGeoengineering.com |”…in some studies we reviewed, when uncertainty was considered in estimates of cloud seeding effectiveness, the estimated effect was not distinguishable from zero with a high degree of statistical confidence.” -p.22 GAO Report
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report reviewing the 80-year-old cloud seeding technology and providing policy options. There was little mention of liability issues resulting from weather modification activities even though the federal government is well aware of the potential for citizen litigation against the modification programs.
According to the report, “‘policymakers’ include Congress, federal and state agencies, research institutions, industry, and other stakeholders.” Stakeholders exclude the general public of course, though negative public perception is recognized as influential in changing policy. Notably, USA State legislation to ban cloud seeding activities was also referenced in the report.
“Cloud seeding is a decades-old approach to modifying weather that uses a range of supporting technologies for research and operations. According to NOAA, the most common uses of cloud seeding are to increase precipitation or suppress hail, usually by adding tiny particles of silver iodide. Nine U.S. states are currently using it, while ten have banned or have considered banning cloud seeding or weather modification in general.” Source
Consulted agencies included the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, the Department of Transportation; the Federal Aviation Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation.
Each of these agencies are partners in the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) cited in the Congressionally Mandated Research Plan and an Initial Research Governance Framework Related to Solar Radiation Modification. The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) was also referenced as an authority on cloud seeding in the GAO report.
GAO’s report inferred that the public needed to be better educated regarding cloud seeding, weather modification and geoengineering definitions. For example:
“The public may not fully understand cloud seeding, including how it differs from geoengineering, which affects the climate on longer time scales.” -p.3
“Cloud seeding techniques are similar to those used for some types of climate engineering (or geoengineering), which generally seeks to alter the climate in ways that last longer and are less local.” -p.9
U.S cloud seeding activities are primarily funded at the state level or below. As of July 2024, cloud seeding programs were active in at least nine states: California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Seeding agents include silver iodide (considered hazardous under Clean Water Act and listed as a hazardous substance, a priority pollutant, and toxic pollutant by EPA), sodium chloride and other salts, dry ice (used as a pesticide and rodenticide), liquid propane, organic matter from microbes, electrically charged water, and engineered nanomaterials.
Observational infrastructure utilizes electromagnetic microwave radiation pollution emitted from cellular communications networks in order to monitor and predict precipitation.
Related Microwave Links from Cellular Communication Networks As Rain Gauges
29 States and the District of Columbia have laws that address weather modification
39 countries engaged in cloud seeding activities from 2020-2024
Related
Cloud Seeding Technology GAO December 2024
GAO, Technology Assessment: Climate Engineering: Technical Status, Future Directions, and
Potential Responses, GAO-11-71 (Washington, D.C.: July 28, 2011).
GAO, Climate Change: A Coordinated Strategy Could Focus Federal Geoengineering Research and
Inform Governance Efforts, GAO-10-903 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 23, 2010).
GAO, Climate Change: Preliminary Observations on Geoengineering Science, Federal Efforts, and
Governance Issues, GAO-10-546T (Washington, D.C.: Mar. 18, 2010).
GAO, Indemnification for Damages Provisions in Cooperative Agreement Between NOAA and
Government of Australia, B-198206 (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 4, 1980).
GAO, Federal Weather Modification Efforts Need Congressional Attention, CED-80-5 (Washington,
D.C.: Nov. 1, 1979).
GAO, Need for a National Weather Modification Research Program, B-133202 (Washington, D.C.:
Aug. 23, 1974).
GAO, Cloud-Seeding Activities Carried Out in the United States Under Programs Supported by the
Federal Agencies, B-100063 (Washington, D.C.: May 31, 1972).
The GAO report did not go into detail regarding liability issues resulting from weather modification activities even though the federal government is well aware of the potential for citizen litigation against the modification programs.
From 2005 Letter written by John H. Marburger, Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation:
Further Reading
Why Are Governments Gaslighting the Public on Geoengineering?
5Z 2005 OSTP Letter RE: S. 517 Rebranding Weather Modification to Weather Research
Send a message to your legislators to ban cloud seeding and other polluting atmospheric interventions HERE