Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-03-02
NEW FoRcEs-W
BY PHIL YEAGER
and JOHN STARK
anneini yVrikara fop The star

0uk1lC u Tic LcAull1lco OCCd~
stoned by mans pell-mell scien-
tific progress have dealt in recent
months with the Race to Control
the Weather" and even have iden-
titled that race as 1.-THE Next Move
in the Cold War"
Is it true that weather control
is Just another Of the fearful
weapons Of politics and war? Or
does it offer hope Of beneflting all
nations and bringing them into
harmony?
Those questions are being pom
dered by meteorologists, weather
engineers and military men as
they take the first faltering steps
toward human control Of the
greatest natural forces.
Some are frankly worried about
the politico- military outlook. How
ard T. Orville. the retired Navy
captain who headed q 4-year study
by the Presidents Advisory Com
mittee on Weather Control, COM
mented that If Russia outdis-
tances us at this game "the results
could be even more disastrous
than nuclear warfare" And Prof.
Henry g. Houghtcn, Massachu-
sets Institute of Technology me-
teorologist, said, II shudder to
think of the consequences Of a
prior Russian discovery Of a FEAST
bic method of weather control"
But others take a more opti-
miStic tack. recalling the words Of
the late DR.. John Won Neumann, u
distinguished mathematician-sci-
enlist and one-time member of
the Atomic Energy Commission.
DR. Won Neumann once said that
weather control will merge each
nations affairs with those of every
other more thoroughly than the
threat of a nuclear or any other
war already may have DONE" And
there are scientists who believe
that this merger will be so COM
plete that it will bind, at least,
the nations of the Northern Henri
sphere-which include the United
States and RuSsia-into a sort of
international weather league OPP
Grating under mutually written
and enforced rules.
It's on the Woy
Weather control is in an en-
bryonic stage as one of the New
Forces with which man must
cope. But the most informed Of
the scientists in the weather field
seem certain that 1t is coming.
The Presidents Advisory Commit
tee said that it was convinced
large-scale weather patterns could
be reversed or modified, although
the exact means have not yet been
discovered. DR.. Won Neumann
thought that probably interview
ton in atmosphere and climate
matters will come in a few decades
and will unfold on a scale difficult
to imagine at present"
Assuming that weather control
does prove feasible, what's in it
for us?
On the plus side are these posi-
bilities: Storm modification, i.e.,
suppression of hail and lightning,
diversion of hurricanes, dissolu-
ton of tornadoes. etc.; water stor-
age and drought alienation for
the benefit of farms, municipal
water supplies and hydroelectric
power; preventions of freeze;
cloud and fog dispersal; forest
preservation; flood control.
The minus side is obvious. A
nation which is able to control
weather may use that power as
a weapon to freeze out, dry up,
steam or deluge other parts of
the world. 1t might also use
weather as a tactical weapon in
war to wreak the kind of havoc
which devastated the Spanish
armada in 1888, which overlook
the armies of Napoleon and Hit
Ter on the bitter plains of Russia.
The Importance of weather in
military campaigns has always
been recognized. What is new is
the idea of using the weather it
self as an instrument Of deployed
defense or of conquest. Even this
idea was foreseen long before cur
rent speculation on cutting OF an
enemy's rainfall. swapping his
airfields, opening cloud holes for
air raiders, or creating a perma-
nent cloud cover to shut of all
sunlight. More than 10 years ago
Gen. George c. Kenney. then
commander Of the Strategic Air
Command, commented: THE ma
ton which learns to plot the paths
of air masses correctly and learns
to control the time and place of
precipitation will dominate the
globe"
Many Techniques Tried
Weather control ideas already
suggested or under experimental
ton include cloud seeding, spray
ing polar areas with melting cata-
lySts, holding down evaporation
on level water by a surface coat
ing of chemicals, diverting hur-
ricanes by widespread patch
burning of oil on the ocean, trim
ming mountain ranges with H
bombs to alter prevailing wind
patterns, heating polar ice caps