Page 234 - James Rodger Fleming - Fixing the sky

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Meteorology. After reminding his listeners that Kennedy and Khrushchev had
made climate modification “respectable” to talk about, Wexler quoted exten-
sively from Zworykin’s weather control proposal and von Neumann’s response
to it.
Wexler discussed the problem of increasing global pollution from industry
and reviewed recent developments in atmospheric science, including comput-
ing and satellites that led him to believe that manipulating and controlling large-
scale phenomena in the atmosphere were becoming distinct possibilities. He
cited rising carbon dioxide emissions as an example of indirect control, mention-
ing the Callendar effect as one of the ways in which humanity was already inad-
vertently modifying global climate: “We are releasing huge quantities of carbon
dioxide and other gases and particles into the lower atmosphere, which may have
serious effects on the radiation or heat balance, which determines our present
pattern of climate and weather.” 69
Wexler warned that the space age was introducing an entirely new kind
of “atmospheric pollution” problem. He was particularly worried that some
types of rocket fuel might release chlorine or bromine, “which could destroy
naturally occurring atmospheric ozone and open up a ‘hole,’ admitting pas-
sage of harmful ultra-violet radiation to the lower atmosphere” (2). Changes
in the upper atmosphere caused by increasing contrails, space experiments
gone awry, or the actions of a hostile power could disrupt the ozonosphere, the
ionosphere, or even the general circulation and climate on which human exis-
tence depends. Wexler felt that it was urgent to use “the most advanced math-
ematical models of atmospheric behavior” (3) to study the physical, chemical,
and meteorological consequences of such interferences. He then explained
how the weather bureau was in the process of acquiring new computers and
developing new models to “simulate the behavior of the actual atmosphere
and examine artificial influences that Man is introducing in greater and
greater measure as he contaminates the atmosphere” (4). Both the Christian
Science Monitor and the Boston Globe ran prominent stories on this aspect of
his lecture. 70
Wexler told his audiences that he was concerned with planetary-scale manip-
ulation of the environment that would result in “rather large-scale effects on
general circulation patterns in short or longer periods, even approaching that of
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climatic change.” He assured them that he did not intend to cover all possibili-
ties “but just a few . . . limited primarily to interferences with the Earth’s radiative
balance on a rather large scale: I shall discuss in a purely hypothetical framework
those atmospheric influences that man might attempt deliberately to exert and
also those which he may now be performing or will soon be performing, perhaps

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