Yes, I realize that "ultimate" is subjective.
Nevertheless, one must admit it would be quite a benefit for a nation's armed forces to control the weather. If you control the weather, you control the battlefield. If you control the battlefield, you win the conflict. It wouldn't take a megastorm, even though that would be quite effective as a weapon of mass destruction. You just need a storm bad enough to ground an enemy air force that is severely lacking in all-weather aircraft.
What has me thinking about this subject? A story on UPI showed up earlier this month. The headline read, "China promises more weather control."
They're serious. According to the article, this promise entails a complete weather control system in place by 2020. The motives behind the project are said to include increased precipitation for Chinese agricultural regions and weather manipulation for "disaster relief." Apparently, the Chinese government has used weather control measures before, such as with the Opening Ceremonies for their 2008 Summer Olympics. One would be forgiven, of course, for asking "where would this eventually lead?"
The idea of weather control is not exactly new. Conspiracy theorists having been screaming for years that the whole point of the HAARP facility in Alaska is for exactly that very purpose. Digging around a bit, I found an article on American Free Press from all the way back in September of 2005 that quotes writer Sydney Sheldon as asserting that, "two superpowers have the ability to control weather around the world: the United States and Russia. Other countries, probably China and North Korea, are working feverishly to catch up.”
The date of the article's publication was mere days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. As the text itself asks, if weather control technology truly exists, then couldn't it have stopped one of the worst hurricanes on record? Or a more disquieting question might be, did said technology actually cause Katrina? As in, a malfunction or worse yet, a test run? The cynic in me would say that New Orleans would make for prime test target in the eyes of alleged Powers That Be of conspiracy lore. As we saw, the emergency response tends to be slower when your population is poor and black.
More matters out of our control for you to ponder upon as you drift off to snoozeville this night.
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On Facebook, Dr. Rich said: "That would be awesome if it was remotely plausable. The level of technology to change weather, not influence a pre-existing condition (like seeding rainclouds with dry ice), is Trek level tech. Manipulating hurricanes would take massive amounts of energy to even dent it.
ReplyDelete"Or do nothing and let your enemy self destruct on their own, like everyone is gonna do anyway."
On Facebook, PilotJess said: "Why let it get to the point of battlefield? If you can control the weather, then just make the enemy state unable to support it's population, and drive the economy to the point where they are unable to make war in the first place.
ReplyDelete"As I ponder on this more, if you (and your opponent) both have the ability to control weather, then wouldn't that be the new war/battlefield?
"Move the ozone hole around and just fry the other guy."
Well Jess, I think that's the idea. Weather control would just be another WMD. Or a means to control the ionosphere and thereby dominate global communication.
On Facebook, Graymalkin said: "Use it on your own people... True power lies in those that manipulate the masses!"
ReplyDeleteSteve, you're on to something. There is a school of thought that claims that Hurricane Katrina was just that.