MTG suggests cloud seeding could stop LA wildfires months after implying it was used to create hurricanes
The controversial Georgia Republican has a long history of promoting weather-related conspiracy theories
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Your support makes all the difference.Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has called on a mysterious “they” to use “cloud seeding” to stop the California wildfires — once again peddling false claims about officials’ purported ability to control the weather.
“Why don’t they use geoengineering like cloud seeding to bring rain down on the wildfires in California?” Greene wrote on X Sunday. “They know how to do it.”
Several wildfires have been scorching southern California since last week, prompting hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate. The blazes have killed at least 25 people and burned through more than 40,000 acres. The Palisades and Eaton fires are now among the most destructive in Los Angeles history.
In October, the Republican from Georgia similarly claimed that “they” can control the weather after Hurricane Helene killed more than two dozen people in her state and more than 230 across the US.
“Everyone keeps asking, ‘who is they?’” Greene wrote on X last year.
“Well some of them are listed on NOAA, as well as most of the ways weather can be modified...If your home or business or property is damaged or a loved one is killed by their weather modifications shouldn’t you be eligible for compensation?” she wrote.
Greene also attached screenshots of “weather modification project reports” from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website to her post, which included cloud seeding.
Cloud seeding is a practice that was developed in the 1940s which aims to produce rain or snow, according to the Desert Research Institute. Experts can do this by introducing “ice nuclei” to certain types of clouds using planes or ground-based generators, using agents including silver iodide, potassium iodide and even table salt. These can be introduced to clouds either from the air, using airplanes or drones, or using generators from the ground.
The method can create small amounts of rain in localized areas.
Cloud seeding is often used to locally improve winter snowfall and increase mountain snow, which in turn ensures a higher natural water supply in the area, according to the DRI.
Conspiracy theorists have pointed to cloud seeding throughout the years as evidence that the government can control major weather events.
However, cloud seeding does not work in very dry environments, like California. Similarly, the practice can’t be used to create or modify hurricanes, NOAA has explained, despite Greene’s previous claims. Furthermore, there is no weather modification technique that would allow the government to create a hurricane.
President Joe Biden called her hurricane weather control claims “so stupid” in October.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather, we’re controlling the weather,” Biden said from the White House. “It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s so stupid. It’s got to stop.”
Greene was also blasted on X by meteorologists and climate experts this weekend for spreading the false claim that cloud seeding could extinguish the fires.
“Marjorie — we can’t make water spontaneously appear,” atmospheric scientist Matthew Cappucci wrote. “Cloud seeding requires moisture to be present; cloud seeding just helps it fall.
“When the relative humidity is like 4%, you DON’T HAVE ANY WATER IN THE ATMOSPHERE,” he added. “Also — who is ‘They’”?
Louisville meteorologist Bryce Jones also chimed in: “Please keep politicians away from weather. And keep politics entirely out of it. This is exhausting.”
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