Weather into a weapon?

Use time as a weapon to subjugate the world seems to be a modus operandi of a James Bond villain, but a prominent US scientist is concerned about the interests of US intelligence services on geoengineering techniques and their effects .

Geoengineering has emerged as an alternative to combat climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or by reflection rays of the Sun (using dust clouds or space). Geoengineering techniques were severely criticized by activists. They say that their promotion suggests that the environmental issues could be solved simply toothless its efforts to empower people on the "footprint" of humanity carbon.

A renowned American scholar argues, however, that geoengineering could be used more sinister purposes. Specifically, Alan Robrock says CIA chiefs fear that states "hostile" trying to manipulate global weather, and they are interested if someone could tell that phenomena such as droughts or floods were caused by means of geoengineering techniques.

"Consultants working for the CIA called me and told me that he wanted to know if we tell if someone climate control," he told Professor Alan Robrock. "Obviously, they asked if others would realize if we control the weather," he said at a scientific conference themes

The teacher is one of many researchers in the world who seek a method to manipulate time in that climate. Geoengineering techniques range from "wet" clouds, by which substances are sprayed from planes above the clouds to trigger precipitation, remedied the sky mirrors to reflect sunlight and cool the planet.

Robrock told consultants who called him that any attempt to change the climate can be detected. He said that use weather as a weapon is not a new idea. This technique was used during the Vietnam War, when the United States tried to generate more rain to slow down the enemy troops. Also, the CIA has sprayed chemicals above the clouds from Cuba to destroy beet crop.

Robrocz believes that this research on how we can change the weather, international and should be transparent so that "there is suspicion that they are used for hostile purposes."

Most intriguing is that the CIA had funded a report on geoengineering. It was published last week, appearing on the list of sponsors "US intelligence community", among other organizations such as NASA. Robrock says that the CIA would be informed a colleague of his in the intention to fund scientific work, but did not want this to be too transparent.

"The CIA is one of the main funders of the report. I am concerned who will have control, "said the scientist.

History geoengineering

The idea of ​​widespread manipulation of the climate of a planet was first popularized by the writings of science-fiction type. They introduced the concept of terraforming, planets like Mars that were transformed to become habitable by humans.

However, the writers of science fiction novels were first thought to global climatic changes. Swede Svante Arrhenius, who lived between 1859 and 1927 was the first scientist to recognize the link between carbon dioxide and the greenhouse effect, achieving in 1896 that the use of coal as a source of energy scale will lead to global warming . Arrhenius hypothesis took into account the combustion of a larger amount of coal to create a greenhouse to Swedish winters less unpleasant.

The Soviets were the first to have thought to implement geoengineering, researchers from the USSR in 1960 proposing several ways to heat the frozen tundra, to be transformed into fertile land that can be used in agriculture.

Today, scientists dedicated to the study of climate states that a global temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius could have devastating consequences, is imperative that this event be avoided. Latest estimates show that specialists 50% reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in 2050 would be insufficient to keep global warming below the 2 degrees. Although most countries took part in the 2009 Copenhagen Summit dedicated to climate change, the agreement reached at the meeting of senior obliges countries to slash emissions.

How to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide takes place at a pace fast enough to avoid an undesirable outcome, scientists have developed several variants that geoengineering could help achieve this important goal.

Professor John Shepherd, chief of a comprehensive study conducted by the Royal Society on geoengineering, said: "None of the technologies geoinginereşti not a magic solution, all risks associated. It is essential to reduce carbon emissions, but we must take into account the possibility not unrealistic that we fail to do so. Therefore, if you need a "Plan B" now need to perform the necessary research to see what impact would geoengineering and how it could be applied where we need. "

Geoinginereşti ideas are numerous and range from practical ideas applicable today, fanciful proposals, apparently drawn from the pages of a science fiction novel. All, however, appear to fall into one of two directions addressed: reducing carbon dioxide in the air, thus reducing the greenhouse effect, or decrease the amount of solar energy absorbed by the planet, which would have a cooling effect on it.