Fixing the Sky

by James Rodger Fleming

59 U.S. House of Representatives, Weather Modification as a Weapon, 510–513; Juda, “Negotiating a Treaty,” 28.

  60 United Nations, “Convention on the Prohibition.”

  61 United Nations, Multilateral Treaties Deposited, 667.

  62 Goldblat, “Environmental Convention,” 57.

  63 Owning the Weather (Greene).

  64 Chamorro and Hammond, Addressing Environmental Modification.

  65 United Nations, Multilateral Treaties Deposited, 667.

  66 Conway, “World According to GARP,” 131–147.

  67 Marshall, “Greening of the National Labs,” 25.

  68 Stapler, “New Face of the Pacific,” n.p.

  69 Cohen, “DoD News Briefing,” n.p.

  7. Fears, Fantasies, and Possibilities of Control

  1 Tuan, Landscapes of Fear, 6.

  2 von Neumann, “Can We Survive Technology?”

  3 Harper, Weather by the Numbers; see also Phillips, “General Circulation”; Smagorinsky, “Beginnings of Numerical”; Thompson, “History of Numerical”; and Nebeker, Calculating the Weather.

  4 Zworykin, “Outline of Weather Proposal,” 8.

  5 von Neumann to Zworykin, October 24, 1945, in Zworykin, “Outline of Weather Proposal.”

  6 Athelstan F. Spilhaus, “Comments on Weather Proposal,” November 6, 1945, in Zworykin, “Outline of Weather Proposal.”

  7 Waldemar Kaempffert, “Julian Huxley Pictures the More Spectacular Possibilities That Lie in Atomic Power,” New York Times, December 9, 1945, 77; “Blasting Polar Ice,” New York Times, February 2, 1946, 11.

  8 “Sarnoff Predicts Weather Control and Delivery of the Mail by Radio,” New York Times, October 1, 1946, 1.

  9 “Talk of the Town,” New Yorker, October 12, 1946, 23.

  10 . MacCracken, “On the Possible Use of Geoengineering.”

  11 “Storm Prevention Seen by Scientist,” New York Times, January 31, 1947, 16.

  12 “Weather to Order,” New York Times, February 1, 1947, 14.

  13 Wexler, “Trip Report—Princeton, N.J., Oct. 14–15, 1946,” box 2, Wexler Papers.

  14 Harald Sverdrup to Francis Reichelderfer, June 2, 1946, box 2, Wexler Papers.

  15 “$28,000,000 Urged to Support M.I.T.,” New York Times, June 15, 1947, 46.

  16 Mann, “War Against Hail,” 8.

  17 Hoffman, “Controlling Hurricanes”; see also Hoffman, “Controlling the Global Weather”; and Hoffman, Leidner, and Henderson, “Controlling the Global Weather.”

  18 Shachtman, “NASA Funds Sci-Fi Technology.”

  19 Quoted in Hoffman, Leidner, and Henderson, “Controlling the Global Weather,” 1.

  20 Science of Superstorms (British Broadcasting Corporation).

  21 Owning the Weather (Rosen).

  22 Mark Schleifstein, “Bill Gates of Microsoft Envisions Fighting Hurricanes by Manipulating the Sea,” Times-Picayune, July 15, 2009, http://www.nola.com.

  23 Lenin, Materialism.

  24 Burke, “Influence of Man,” 1036, 1049–1050.

  25 Zikeev and Doumani, Weather Modification.

  26 Markin, Soviet Electric Power, 133.

  27 Rusin and Flit, Man versus Climate, 174.

  28 Rusin and Flit, Methods of Climate Control, 2.

  29 Adabashev, Global Engineering, 161.

  30 Shaler, “How to Change,” 728–729.

  31 Riker, Conspectus of Power.

  32 Borisov, “Radical Improvement of Climate.”

  33 Quoted in Adabashev, Global Engineering, 192.

  34 Borisov, Can We Control the Arctic Climate? 6–7.

  35 Takano and Higuchi, “Numerical Experiment.”

  36 Rusin and Flit, Methods of Climate Control, 25.

  37 Gaskell, Gulf Stream, 152.

  38 Rusin and Flit, Methods of Climate Control, 26.

  39 Mackenzie, Flooding of the Sahara, 285.

  40 “Algerian Inland Sea.”

  41 Verne, L’Invasion de la mer.

  42 G. A. Thompson, “Proposes to Turn Sahara into a Sea,” New York Times, October 15, 1911, C1; Thompson, “Plan for Converting the Sahara.”

  43 Gall, Das Atlantropa-Projekt; Voigt, Atlantropa.

  44 Johnson, “Climate Control.”

  45 U.S. Army Air Forces, “Memorandum Report”; Oberth, Die Rakete; Oberth, Wege zur Raumschiffahrt.

  46 “Space Mirror.”

  47 U.S. Army Air Forces, “Memorandum Report.”

  48 “Space Mirror.”

  49 Humphreys, “Volcanic Dust”; Humphreys, Physics of the Air.

  50 Hoyle and Lyttleton, “Effect of Interstellar Matter”; Krook, “Interstellar Matter.”

  51 Rusin and Flit, Man versus Climate, 60–63.

  52 Bruno, “Bequest of the Nuclear Battlefield,” 259.

  53 “Text of Johnson’s Statement on Status of Nation’s Defenses and Race for Space,” New York Times, January 8, 1958, 10.

  54 Fleming, “What Counts as Knowledge?”

  55 Walter Sullivan, “Called ‘Greatest Experiment,’” New York Times, March 19, 1959, 1; Christofilos, “Argus Experiment,” 869.

  56 New Yorker, May 26, 1962, 31.

  57 Rodin and Hess, “Weather Modification.”

  58 Lovell and Ryle, “Interference to Radio Astronomy.”

  59 Kellogg, “Review of Saturn High Water Experiment,” 1.

  60 Wexler, “On the Possibilities of Climate Control,” 1.

  61 Kennedy, “Address to the United Nations,” n.p.

  62 United Nations, “International Co-operation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.”

  63 Wexler Papers; Yalda, “Harry Wexler.”

  64 U.S. Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit, “Facts Sheet”; Washington, “Computer Modeling.”

  65 Price and Pales, “Mauna Loa Observatory.”

  66 European Space Agency, “Harry Wexler.”

  67 Wexler, “Modifying Weather on a Large Scale,” 1059.

  68 Wexler, “On the Possibilities of Climate Control.”

  69 Wexler, “Further Justification for the General Circulation,” 1; see also Fleming, Callendar Effect.

  70 Robert C. Cowen, “Space Fuel: Weather Maker?” Christian Science Monitor, January 17, 1962, 5; Sumner Barton, “Space Taint Could Twist Weather,” Boston Globe, January 21, 1962, A5.

  71 Wexler, “On the Possibilities of Climate Control,” 1.

  72 Wexler, “Further Justification for the General Circulation,” 1.

  73 Wexler, “On the Possibilities of Climate Control,” table 1.

  74 Wexler, “Further Justification for the General Circulation,” 2.

  75 Chapman, “Gases of the Atmosphere,” 133.

  76 Wexler, “Deozonizer” memorandum.

  77 Malkin to Wexler, November 22, 1961, Wexler Papers.

  78 Manabe and Möller, “On the Radiative Equilibrium.”

  79 Wulf to Wexler, December 15, 1961, Wexler Papers.

  80 Wulf to Wexler, January 2, 1962, Wexler Papers.

  81 Wexler to Wulf, January 5, 1962, Wexler Papers.

  82 Wexler to Wulf, telephone call notes, December 20, 1961, Wexler Papers.

  83 Crutzen, “Influence of Nitrogen Oxides”; Molina and Rowland, “Stratospheric Sink.”

  84 C. N. Touart to Wexler, January 11, 1962, Wexler Papers.

  85 Wexler to Touart, January 19, 1962, Wexler Papers.

  86 Wexler, “U.N. Symposium,” 2.

  8. The Climate Engineers

  1 Philip Shabecoff, “Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate,” New York Times, June 24, 1988, 1.

  2 Changing Atmosphere, 292.

  3 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “IPCC History”; Bolin, History of the Science and Politics.

  4 United Nations, “Framework Convention on Climate Change.”

  5 MacCracken, “Working Toward International Agreement.”

  6 Hansen, “Tipping Point?” n.p.

  7 Lovelock, Revenge of Gaia.

  8 Schelling, “Economic
Diplomacy,” 303.

  9 Urban Dictionary, s.v. “geoengineering,” http://www.urbandictionary.com.

  10 Lovelock, Vanishing Face of Gaia, 139; Ruddiman, Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum.

  11 Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “engineer.”

  12 “OUP Blog.”

  13 Royal Society of London, Geoengineering, 77.

  14 Keith, “Engineering the Earth System.”

  15 Keith, “Geoengineering the Climate,” 269.

  16 Broecker, Fossil Fuel CO2, cover illustration.

  17 Fogg, Terraforming.

  18 Quoted in “Terraforming Information Pages.”

  19 Glacken, Traces on the Rhodian Shore, 415–426, 672–681.

  20 For example, Keith and Dowlatabadi, “Serious Look at Geoengineering”; Flannery et al., “Geoengineering Climate”; and Teller, Wood, and Hyde, “Global Warming and Ice Ages.”

  21 Blackstock et al., Climate Engineering Responses, v.

  22 Just such a scenario is in Dyer, Climate Wars, 190–193.

  23 Robock, “20 Reasons,” 17–18

  24 Robock, “Need for Organized Research.”

  25 Luginbuhl, Walker, and Wainscoat, “Lighting and Astronomy.”

  26 Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, “Potential of Geo-engineering Solutions,” paragraph 2.13.

  27 An interesting article on ethics, but with no mention of geoengineering, is Gardiner, “Ethics and Global Climate Change.” The work of philosophers Dale Jamieson and Martin Bunzl also comes to mind. I was personally involved in sessions on geoengineering history, ethics, and policy at the American Geophysical Union (2005), at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007), and elsewhere, but I would suggest that more work on this subject is essential.

  28 [Gavin Schmidt], “Geo-engineering in Vogue ...,” n.p.

  29 Ward, “How Far Can Man Control His Climate?”

  30 Danko, “Budyko,” 179–180; Gal’tsov, “Conference on Problems of Climate Control”; Budyko, “Heat Balance of the Earth.”

  31 Shvets, “Control of Climate Through Stratospheric Dusting.”

  32 Black and Tarmy, “Use of Asphalt Coatings,” 557.

  33 Dessens, “Man-made Tornadoes,” 13.

  34 Eichhorn, Implications of Rising Carbon Dioxide, 14; Fleming, “Gilbert N. Plass.”

  35 MacDonald, “How to Wreck the Environment”; Munk, Oreskes, and Muller, “Gordon James Fraser MacDonald.”

  36 President’s Science Advisory Committee, Restoring the Quality of Our Environment.

  37 Fletcher, Changing Climate, 20.

  38 Fletcher, Managing Climatic Resources, 2.

  39 Yudin, “Possibilities for Influencing.”

  40 Fletcher, Managing Climatic Resources, 18.

  41 Budyko, Climatic Changes, 236.

  42 Kellogg and Schneider, “Climate Stabilization,” 1165.

  43 Santer et al., “Towards the Detection and Attribution.”

  44 Kellogg and Schneider, “Climate Stabilization,” 1171.

  45 Marchetti, “On Geoengineering.”

  46 National Academy of Sciences, Energy and Climate.

  47 Dyson, “Can We Control the Carbon Dioxide?”; Dyson and Marland, “Technical Fixes”; “Question of Global Warming.”

  48 Schelling, “Climatic Change,” 469.

  49 Turco et al., “Nuclear Winter”; Badash, Nuclear Winter’s Tale.

  50 Penner, Schneider, and Kennedy, “Active Measures.”

  51 Early, “Space-Based Solar Shield.”

  52 Tyson, “Five Points of Lagrange,” n.p.

  53 National Academy of Sciences, Policy Implications, 657.

  54 Stix, “Removal of Chlorofluorocarbons.”

  55 Dan Fagin, “Tinkering with the Environment,” Newsday, April 13, 1992, 7.

  56 Nordhaus, “Optimal Transition Path,” 1317–1318.

  57 Schneider, “Earth Systems Engineering,” 418.

  58 Summers, “Memo,” n.p.

  59 Quoted in ibid.

  60 Nordhaus, “Challenge of Global Warming,” n.p.

  61 Fagin, “Tinkering with the Environment,” 7.

  62 National Academy of Sciences, Policy Implications, 451–452.

  63 I thank Gregory Cushman for illuminating discussions on tropospheric pollution caused by cannon fire.

  64 Blackstock et al., Climate Engineering Responses, 47.

  65 The quote is widely cited and is based on Martin and Fitzwater, “Iron Deficiency,” 341–343.

  66 Martin, “Glacial–Interglacial CO2 Change”; Martin, Gordon, and Fitzwater, “Case for Iron.”

  67 Buesseler et al., “Ocean Iron Fertilization”; quoted at Woods Hole ocean engineering meeting, September 2007.

  68 Oceanus.

  69 King, “Can Adding Iron?” 134.

  70 Lackner, “Capture.”

  71 Keith, “Why Capture?”

  72 Lackner, “Submission.” I thank my colleague Thomas Shattuck for an enlightening discussion of chemical energetics.

  73 Broecker, Fossil Fuel CO2, fig. 59.

  74 Brown, Challenge of Man’s Future, 142, quoted in Broecker and Kunzig, Fixing Climate , 228.

  75 Schwartz and Randall, “Abrupt Climate Change,” n.p.

  76 “Russian Scientist Suggests Burning Sulfur in Stratosphere to Fight Global Warming,” MosNews, November 30, 2005, n.p.

  77 Crutzen, “Albedo Enhancement.”

  78 Budyko, Climatic Changes, 241.

  79 Crutzen, “Albedo Enhancement,” 212.

  80 U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Workshop Report; Kintisch, “Tinkering”; Kintisch, “Giving Climate Change a Kick.”

  81 Cicerone, “Geoengineering,” 221.

  82 “No Quick or Easy Technological Fix”; compare with “Five Ways to Save the World.”

  83 Izrael et al., “Field Experiment,” 265.

  84 Budyko, “Global Climate Warming,” n.p.

  85 Wood, “Stabilizing Changing Climate.”

  86 Cohn, “Sex and Death,” 717–718.

  87 Launder and Thompson, eds., “Geoscale Engineering.”

  88 Schneider, “Geoengineering” (2008).

  89 Lovelock, “Geophysiologist’s Thoughts,” quoted in “Medicine for a Feverish Planet: Kill or Cure?” Guardian, September 1, 2008.

  90 Lovelock and Rapley, “Ocean Pipes,” 403.

  91 Vince, “One Last Chance.”

  92 Hawthorne, “Great Carbuncle,” 128.

  93 Lampitt et al., “Ocean Fertilization”; Smetacek and Naqvi, “Next Generation.”

  94 Latham et al., “Global Temperature Stabilization”; Salter, Sortino, and Latham, “Sea-going Hardware.”

  95 Caldeira and Wood, “Global and Arctic Climate Engineering”; Robock, Oman, and Stenchikov, “Regional Climate Responses.”

  96 Rasch et al., “Overview of Geoengineering”; Tilmes, Müller, and Salawitch, “Sensitivity of Polar Ozone Depletion,” 1201.

  97 U.S. House of Representatives, Geoengineering.

  98 Royal Society of London, Geoengineering, ix.

  99 Royal Academy of Engineering, “Submission.”

  100 Cotton, “Weather and Climate Engineering ,” 1.1.

  101 Walker and King, Hot Topic; Pacala and Socolow, “Stabilization Wedges.”

  102 Bulfinch, Age of Fable, 63.

  103 Chang and Shih, “Stratospheric Welsbach Seeding.”

  104 Lamb, “Climate-Engineering Schemes”; MacCracken, “Geoengineering the Climate”; Cicerone, Elliott, and Turco, “Reduced Antarctic Ozone Depletion”; Cicerone, Elliott, and Turco, “Global Environmental Engineering.”

  105 American Meteorological Society, “Policy Statement on Geoengineering”; U.S. House of Representatives, Geoengineering.

  106 Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, 690.

  107 MacCracken, “Beyond Mitigation.”

  108 Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, xvii.

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