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oapen-20.500.12657-634392024-03-28T08:18:57Z Make It Rain Harper, Kristine C. contemporary modern weather control models forecast climate sea level seasons seasonal average rainfall snow wind behavior history historical 1940s funding government federal local agriculture health industry economy economic project snowpack cold war atmosphere research academic scholarly diplomacy international thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::R Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning::RB Earth sciences::RBP Meteorology and climatology thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering and technology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPQ Central / national / federal government::JPQB Central / national / federal government policies Weather control. Juxtaposing those two words is enough to raise eyebrows in a world where even the best weather models still fail to nail every forecast, and when the effects of climate change on sea level height, seasonal averages of weather phenomena, and biological behavior are being watched with interest by all, regardless of political or scientific persuasion. But between the late nineteenth century—when the United States first funded an attempt to “shock” rain out of clouds—and the late 1940s, rainmaking (as it had been known) became weather control. And then things got out of control. In Make It Rain, Kristine C. Harper tells the long and somewhat ludicrous history of state-funded attempts to manage, manipulate, and deploy the weather in America. Harper shows that governments from the federal to the local became helplessly captivated by the idea that weather control could promote agriculture, health, industrial output, and economic growth at home, or even be used as a military weapon and diplomatic tool abroad. Clear fog for landing aircraft? There’s a project for that. Gentle rain for strawberries? Let’s do it! Enhanced snowpacks for hydroelectric utilities? Check. The heyday of these weather control programs came during the Cold War, as the atmosphere came to be seen as something to be defended, weaponized, and manipulated. Yet Harper demonstrates that today there are clear implications for our attempts to solve the problems of climate change. 2023-06-08T16:43:19Z 2023-06-08T16:43:19Z 2017 book ONIX_20230608_9780226437378_2 9780226437378 9780226437231 9780226597928 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/63439 eng application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International 9780226437378.pdf https://bibliopen.org/p/bopen/9780226437378 University of Chicago Press University of Chicago Press 10.7208/chicago/9780226437378.001.0001 10.7208/chicago/9780226437378.001.0001 9ff930ac-8023-4fa3-80ee-d7b1cb3cd84f 9780226437378 9780226437231 9780226597928 University of Chicago Press 304 Chicago open access
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Weather control. Juxtaposing those two words is enough to raise eyebrows in a world where even the best weather models still fail to nail every forecast, and when the effects of climate change on sea level height, seasonal averages of weather phenomena, and biological behavior are being watched with interest by all, regardless of political or scientific persuasion. But between the late nineteenth century—when the United States first funded an attempt to “shock” rain out of clouds—and the late 1940s, rainmaking (as it had been known) became weather control. And then things got out of control. In Make It Rain, Kristine C. Harper tells the long and somewhat ludicrous history of state-funded attempts to manage, manipulate, and deploy the weather in America. Harper shows that governments from the federal to the local became helplessly captivated by the idea that weather control could promote agriculture, health, industrial output, and economic growth at home, or even be used as a military weapon and diplomatic tool abroad. Clear fog for landing aircraft? There’s a project for that. Gentle rain for strawberries? Let’s do it! Enhanced snowpacks for hydroelectric utilities? Check. The heyday of these weather control programs came during the Cold War, as the atmosphere came to be seen as something to be defended, weaponized, and manipulated. Yet Harper demonstrates that today there are clear implications for our attempts to solve the problems of climate change.
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