Let’s discuss the weather

Hurricane Helene was the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland in nearly two decades with the worst flooding in North Carolina since 1916 due to a confluence of factors including record breaking high water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico; it was followed just two weeks later by the equally destructive Category 3 storm, Milton.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene of Georgia was in the national spotlight again, this time for her baseless claim that “they” (presumably the Biden administration) had manipulated hurricanes Helene and Milton to serve as weapons to punish Florida, North Carolina and the Southeast’s “MAGA” Republicans therein. Her wild assertions spread rapidly and set off a flurry of angry responses across the internet’s social media sites. Officials and climatologists throughout the country quickly went public to explain that “we aren’t able to control the weather even if we wanted to”; and President Biden denounced these rumors harshly over national TV. But a large proportion of Trump supporters remained unconvinced, especially since Trump himself and his running mate J.D. Vance failed to denounce weather tampering claims and added other false assertions about the Federal government’s response even though they knew them to be untrue.

Of all the conspiracy theories and disinformation that have circulated, meteorologists say one falsehood that has especially gotten out of hand is the claim that the government is creating or controlling the storms. Forecasters have been harassed for either failing to promote these claims or for disseminating accurate information that counters them.

Delivering weather forecasts and explaining climate science have recently made meteorologists targets of climate deniers and conspiracy theorists. Matthew Cappucci, meteorologist for the Washington Post, said he received hundreds of comments and dozens of messages during the recent storms about how the government had modified the weather and that accused him of helping cover it up. Marshall Shepherd, former president of the American Meteorological Society said that the scrutiny he faces during major weather events combined with the current political climate may have created “conditions ripe for abuse.” The disinformation around Helene and Milton has become so overwhelming that even public officials linked to other conspiracy theories — such as election denial — are trying to beat back rumors and underscore the severity of the storms.

Delivering weather forecasts and explaining climate science have recently made meteorologists targets of climate deniers and conspiracy theorists.

Meteorologists giving forecasts and explaining climate forecasts have been targets for harassment for years but amid the conspiracy theories and falsehoods that have spiraled online after hurricanes Helene and Milton, the attacks and threats directed at them have reached new heights.

Emergency workers have also been targeted with abuse. In the aftermath of Helene, Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel received a significant amount of harassment, including false claims that the agency was stealing donations and diverting disaster aid to Ukraine. Both Trump and Vance repeatedly claimed, falsely, that funds earmarked for storm relief had been transferred to a program to benefit illegal immigrants. This lie was denounced by various public officials but fueled anger and resentment, particularly in rural areas.

Calls were made for residents to form militias to defend against those workers (who also faced antisemitic and misogynistic threats). FEMA’s current administrator Deanne Criswell told ABC in early October that the rhetoric was “demoralizing” and had created “fear in our own employees.” Many of the falsehoods about the hurricanes have been spread by supporters of former President Trump and by Trump himself.

Congresswoman Greene’s unsubstantiated assertions claiming that “they” had created and were manipulating hurricanes Helene and Milton, directing them to strike predominately Republican areas was totally false. However, her assertions possessed a loose connection to experimental science. Since the Second World War, a variety of scientists and governments have been pursuing experiments in geoengineering, a field which has been lately preoccupied with installing certain chemical particles into the atmosphere to create areas of sky that would reflect the sun’s rays back thereby keeping them from heating the earth and oceans, thus lowering earth’s temperature. However, climate scientists around the world have insisted that there is no way to control hurricanes or other fierce windstorms (cyclones, tornados, typhoons, etc.), at least at this time; and no one is trying to do so.

However, the thought of hostile foreign powers trying to manipulate the climate in a nefarious way sounds like the premise for a dark dystopian nightmare of the future. Let’s hope it’s nothing more.

Architect and landscape designer Mac Gordon lives in Lakeville.