Republicans across the country are working hard to pass bills banning something that the fringe corners of the internet told them to be afraid of: weather modification.
Weather modification refers to geoengineering processes such as solar radiation modification and cloud-seeding that are used to counter the effects of global warming and drought, respectively. These processes have been woven into right-wing conspiracy theories that the government is able to control the weather, and MAGA lawmakers—fearful that the Democrats could rule the heavens and summon a deluge to wipe them out—have started to take action.
Republican lawmakers in nearly 20 states have introduced legislation to prevent weather modification. Some of the laws allude to “chemtrails,” a conspiracy theory that planes aren’t leaving “contrails” of condensation in the atmosphere but are spreading chemicals on an unsuspecting public. In two states, Florida and Tennessee, those bills have passed and been signed into law.
In July, right-wing concerns about weather modification reached a new fever pitch.
Earlier this month, Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin announced an effort to “compile everything we know about contrails and geoengineering” and release it to the public.
Days later, Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tim Burchett introduced the Clear Skies Act, a bill that would levy steep penalties for anyone who “knowingly conducts weather modification,” including geoengineering, cloud seeding, solar radiation modification, and the release of aerosol to “influence temperature, precipitation, or the intensity of sunlight.”
After Hurricane Helene struck the southeast United States in October, Greene boosted the right-wing conspiracy theory that the Biden administration had used weather manipulation to target Republican areas ahead of the U.S. general election. “Yes they can control the weather,” Greene wrote in a post on X at the time. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”
The theory of weather control is not only outrageously anti-science but based on an explicitly antisemitic conspiracy theory—though that’s something Greene has never shied away from in the past. In fact, she added to the conspiracy theory with her now-infamous “Jewish space lasers” comment.
Greene isn’t actually worried about manmade impact on the environment; after all, she’s got no problems with fossil fuels. Rather, she’s latched onto conspiracy theories about how weather can be controlled by those in power. Meanwhile, Greene said she saw a kind of “funny hypocrisy” from the environmentalists who oppose pollution but not weather manipulation.
In interviews, Greene and Burchett said that the impetus for their legislation was concerns of constituents. Burchett admitted that the issue “was in the realm of the conspiracy theorists” but had “taken on a little bit more mainstream.”
“You have one group that says it’s real, and the other group says, ‘You’re a lunatic,’ that it doesn’t exist,” he said.
“If it doesn’t exist,” Burchett added, “then you don’t have anything to worry about.”
While weather modification does exist, it can’t be weaponized as Greene has implied. Several states have programs for cloud seeding—a decades-old technology that helps to induce rain—including California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and North Dakota.