Do you trust the federal government to meddle with the weather?
The Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) recently held a hearing titled “Playing God with the Weather — a Disastrous Forecast.” Members examined the federal government’s role in weather control and geoengineering, along with the potential risks and unintended consequences.
“Weather modification is playing God with our skies, using chemicals we don’t fully understand. We don’t know what the consequences will be, but we know they could be devastating. The American people deserve transparency!,” the DOGE Subcommittee posted on X/Twitter.
Chairwoman Marjorie Green (R-GA) asked whether Earth’s climate and temperatures had historically changed since the creation of the world.
Dr. Roger Pielke Jr., Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, responded: “The changes over the last century and a half have been judged to be largely driven by accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, so that’s not particularly controversial. What is controversial is, ‘what are the effects? When will we know them?’ I would disagree that we can control weather with carbon dioxide emissions. There’s no knob that says more extreme weather, less extreme weather. There are great reasons for reducing carbon dioxide, but I don’t think anyone should think we’re going to stop hurricanes, floods, or atmospheric rivers using that knob.”
The gist of the testimony was clear: the consequences of weather control and geoengineering remain uncertain and poorly understood.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), DOGE member, added: “Even small weather modification can spark the BUTTERFLY EFFECT. We don’t know what chemicals are being used. We didn’t vote for this, and Americans deserve to know what’s happening in our skies.”
Pielke concluded: “Weather modification activities have been widely implemented for 70 years. Despite that history, the effectiveness of such efforts for truly altering weather is still unknown.”