No, weather manipulation is not the real cause of global warming and climate change

Context

A post circulating on Facebook with hundreds of views claims that superficial manipulation of our weather is the actual reason our planet is experiencing climate change and global warming and that scientists are purposely blocking the sun using these techniques. 

However, this is not true. Weather manipulation is only used to counter the harmful effects of human industrialization activities.

In fact

Climate change refers to significant changes in global temperatures and weather characteristics over time. Global warming refers to our planet's temperature surge after the Industrial Revolution. 

The main contributors to global climate change are harmful greenhouse gases emitted from industrial activity, which create the greenhouse effect. In this analogy, the toxic gases act similarly to a greenhouse’s glass, forming a barrier that traps the sun’s heat, thus increasing the temperature of our planet over time. Some of these gases, like methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide (CO2), naturally occur, but human activities exacerbate their production. 

According to NASA, CO2 levels have almost doubled since pre-industrial times, which correlates closely with the increase in global temperatures observed during the same period. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that human influence has been the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century.

Human activities include burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, which produce vast amounts of CO2 and nitrous oxide. Other activities include cutting down forests, which naturally absorb and store CO2 and regulate localized rainfall, droughts, and floods. Deforestation causes about 10 percent of global warming alone, and livestock farming contributes more CO2 emissions than any other food source. The rise in industrial farming practices is also linked to deforestation, as the more we farm, the more we eat away at our greenery.

Over 99 percent of scientists globally agree that human industrialization activities cause global warming, and many organizations that endorse this argument have released public statements to affirm their stance.

What is weather manipulation?

Weather manipulation involves actively altering the atmosphere’s characteristics, dynamics, or composition to change the weather directly. As advancements in technology are made and our understanding of meteorological events increases, we are developing novel ways of manipulating weather to counter the harmful effects of climate change, as confirmed by The World Meteorological Organization, which recognizes weather modification efforts and states that their effects are limited and localized. 

Such methods include cloud seeding to influence cloud formation and increase rainwater supply, releasing gases or aerosols into the atmosphere to reduce harmful solar radiation, or artificially generating wind. These methods have a limited effect and duration and are split into two main categories: geoengineering and solar engineering. 

Geoengineering is another term for weather manipulation. It specifically refers to reducing or removing greenhouse gases from our atmosphere and decreasing ocean acidification. Solar engineering refers to the reflection of sunlight back into outer space. It does not aim to block the sun but to reduce harmful solar radiation entering our atmosphere. Both weather manipulation techniques were developed to start countering the detrimental effects of climate change, a reactive approach versus a proactive one. 

The claim that superficial weather manipulation is the cause of climate change is not valid, and it is only used to counter the harmful effects. Indeed, Earth will exhibit daily devastating effects like wildfires, storms, and disasters if we do not limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2040. 

The verdict

Deforestation, burning fossil fuels, and surges in livestock farming contribute harmful gases to our planet’s atmosphere, enabling global warming that leads to climate change. Weather manipulation is used on localized regions for finite durations to counter some of these detrimental effects. While these technologies exist, their localized and temporary effects cannot account for the long-term global trends observed in climate change data. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.