If you are starting to feel a little hot under the collar, is it global warming—or is it guilt? Now that the Central Intelligence Agency is helping to fund a climate change study, conspiracy theories are sure to abound.
Indeed, according to a project description posted on the website of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the U.S. intelligence community has joined with the academy – as well as with the National Oceanic (News - Alert) and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) – to fund a, $630,000 study into “Geoengineering Climate: Technical Evaluation and Discussion of Impacts.”
What exactly does that mean? Over 21 months, the researchers plan to look at:
- Historical examples of the ways in which people can influence weather patterns (e.g., cloud seeding and other physical attempts at climate modification)
- Current geoengineering techniques , including both solar radiation management (which is designed to reflect sunlight away from the planet) and carbon dioxide removal techniques
- The potential hazards of fiddling with the atmosphere (such as any intended or unintended impact on ocean acidification)
- Psychological and physical effects on the Earth’s population
- Any possible national security implications of geoengineering attempts
According to Mother Jones magazine, Edward Price, a spokesman for the CIA, refused to confirm the agency's role in the study, but said, "It's natural that on a subject like climate change [we] would work with scientists to better understand the phenomenon and its implications on national security." The CIA reportedly closed its research center on climate change and national security last year, after Republican members of Congress argued that the CIA shouldn't be looking at climate change.
Above, a view of sea-surface temperatures on July 17 taken by the U.S. Space Science and Engineering Center
The National Academies has held two previous workshops on geoengineering, but neither was funded by the intelligence community, Edward Dunlea, the study director for the latest project, told Mother Jones.
Apart from the CIA involvement, tinkering with the weather is nothing new. During the Vietnam War, the Air Force carried out a cloud seeding program to try to create rainfall over the Ho Chi Minh Trail for a slippery and soggy tactical advantage.
The researchers began work in March and will wrap up their study in fall 2014.
Edited by Ryan Sartor