Using the global environment as a military weapon

[Makalakumu]

Gordan J. F. Macdonald was a visionary professor in Geophysics. In 1968, he wrote a book entitled, "Unless Peace Comes: How to Wreck the Environment."

Here are some excerpts from this book...

Here's a little more about his background at the time of the writing.

Professor MacDonald is associate director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles. His researches have embraced a remarkable diversity of natural phenomena and his professional interests are further extended by his participation in national science policy-making. He is a member of President Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee.

Weather Modification

Large field programmes are being undertaken in the United States to explore further the possibility of enhancing precipitation, particularly in the western and north-eastern states. On the high ground of the western states, snow from winter storms provides much of the country’s moisture. Investigations are under way to see if seeding can lead to an increased snowpack and thus enhance the water resources. Intense interest in this form of weather modification, coupled with an increased investigation of the physics of clouds, is likely to lead to effective cloud modification within the next five to fifteen years. At present, the effects are measured only statistically and too little has been done in cloud observation before and after seeding in the way of precisely pinpointing which clouds are most likely to be affected.

As far as military applications are concerned, I conjecture that precipitation enhancement would have a limited value in classical tactical situations, and then only in the future when controls are more thoroughly understood. One could, for example, imagine field commanders calling for local enhancement of precipitation to cover or impede various ground operations. An alternative use of cloud seeding might be applied strategically. We are presently uncertain about the effect of seeding on precipitation down wind from the seeded clouds. Preliminary analysis suggests that there is no effect 200-300 miles down wind, but that continued seeding over a long stretch of dry land clearly could remove sufficient moisture to prevent rain 1,000 miles down wind. This extended effect leads to the possibility of covertly removing moisture from the atmosphere so that a nation dependent on water vapour crossing a competitor country could be subjected to years of drought. The operation could be concealed by the statistical irregularity of the atmosphere. A nation possessing superior technology in environmental manipulation could damage an adversary without revealing its intent.
Modification of storms, too, could have major strategic implications. As I have mentioned, preliminary experiments have been carried out on the seeding of hurricanes. The dynamics of hurricanes and the mechanism by which energy is transferred from the ocean into the atmosphere supporting the hurricane are poorly understood. Yet various schemes for both dissipation and steering can be imagined. Although hurricanes originate in tropical regions, they can travel into temperate latitudes, as the residents of New England know only too well. A controlled hurricane could be used as a weapon to terrorize opponents over substantial parts of the populated world.

Climate Modification

At present, we can only tentatively speculate about modifying the short-wave radiation at its source, the Sun. We have discovered major instabilities on the Sun’s surface which might be manipulated many years hence. In a solar flare, for example, 1010 megatons of energy are stored in distorted magnetic fields. With advanced techniques of launching rockets and setting off large explosions, we may sometime in the future learn to trigger these instabilities. For the near future, however, modification will not be in the short-wave in- coming radiation but in the long-wave outgoing radiation.

Control of Earthquakes

Control of earthquakes is a prospect even more distant than that of forecasting although two techniques have been suggested through recent experience.

1. In the course of the underground testing of nuclear weapons at the Nevada test site, it was observed that an explosion apparently released local strain in the Earth. The hypothesis is that the swift build-up of strain due to the sudden release of energy in an explosion discharges strain energy over a large volume of material.
2. Another method of releasing strain energy has appeared from pumping of underground water in the vicinity of Denver, Colorado, which has led to a series of small earthquakes. The hypothesis here is that underground water has provided local lubrication permitting adjacent blocks to slip by one another.

The use as a weapon system of the strain energy instability within the solid Earth requires an effective triggering mechanism. A scheme for pumping water seems clumsy and easily detectable. On the other hand, if the strain pattern in the crust can be accurately determined, the phased or timed release of energy from smaller faults, designed to trigger a large fault at some distance, could be contemplated. This timed release could be activated through small explosions and thus it might be possible to use this release of energy stored in small faults at some distance from a major fault to trigger that major fault. For example, the San Andreas fault zone, passing near Los Angeles and San Francisco, is part of the great earthquake belt surrounding the Pacific. Good knowledge of the strain within this belt might permit the setting off of the San Andreas zone by timed explosions in the China Sea and Philippine Sea. In contrast with certain meteorological operations, it would seem rather unlikely that such an attack could be carried out covertly under the guise of natural earthquakes.

Modification of the Oceans

One instability offering potential as a future weapon system is that associated with tsunamis. These frequently originate from the slumping into the deep ocean of loosely consolidated sediments and rocks perched on the continental shelf. Movement of these sediments can trigger the release of vast quantities of gravitational energy, part of which is converted in the motion of the tsunami. For example if, along a 1,000-kilometre edge of a continental shelf, a block 100 metres deep and 10 kilometres wide were dropped a distance of 100 metres, about 100 megatons of energy would be released. This release would be catastrophic to any coastal nation. How could it be achieved? A series of phased explosions, perhaps setting off natural earthquakes, would be a most effective way. I could even speculate on planning a guided tidal wave, where guidance is achieved by correctly shaping the source which releases energy.

Modification of Brain Waves

The enhanced low-frequency electrical oscillations in the Earth-ionosphere cavity relate to possible weapons systems through a little understood aspect of brain physiology. Electrical activity in the brain is concentrated at certain frequencies, some of it extremely slow, a little around five cycles per second, and very conspicuous activity (the so-called alpha rhythm) around ten cycles per second.

Some experiments have been done in the use of a flickering light to pull the brain’s alpha rhythm into unnatural synchrony with it; the visual stimulation leads to electrical stimulation. There has also been work on direct electrical driving of the brain. In experiments discussed by Norbert Wiener, a sheet of tin is suspended from the ceiling and connected to a generator working at ten cycles per second. With large field strengths of one or two volts per centimetre oscillating at the alpha-rhythm frequency, decidedly unpleasant sensations are noted by human subjects.

The Brain Research Institute of the University of California is investigating the effect of weak oscillating fields on human behaviour. The field strengths in these experiments are of the order of a few hundredths of a volt per centimetre. Subjects show small but measurable degradation in performance when exposed to oscillating fields for periods of up to fifteen minutes.
The field strengths in these experiments are still much stronger, by a factor of about 1,000, than the observed natural oscillations in the Earth-ionosphere cavity. However, as previously noted, the intensity of the natural fluctuations could bc increased substantially and in principle could be maintained for a long time, as tropical thunder storms are always available for manipulation. The proper geographical location of the source of lightning, coupled with accurately-timed, artificially-excited strokes, could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produced relatively high power levels over certain regions of the Earth and substantially lower levels over other regions. In this way, one could develop a system that would seriously impair brain performance in very large populations in selected regions over an extended period.

A Secret Warfare

Deficiencies both in the basic understanding of the physical processes in the environment and in the technology of environmental change make it highly unlikely that environmental modification will be an attractive weapon system in any direct military confrontation in the near future. Man already possesses highly effective tools for destruction. Eventually, however, means other than open warfare may be used to secure national advantage. As economic competition among many advanced nations heightens, it may be to a country’s advantage to ensure a peaceful natural environment for itself and a disturbed environment for its competitors. Operations producing such conditions might be carried out covertly, since nature’s great irregularity permits storms, floods, droughts, earthquakes and tidal waves to be viewed as unusual but not unexpected. Such a ‘secret war’ need never be declared or even known by the affected populations. It could go on for years with only the security forces involved being aware of it. The years of drought and storm would be attributed to unkindly nature and only after a nation were thoroughly drained would an armed take-over be attempted.

All of this seems like science fiction, even now, forty years later. However, often times, well informed people who make predictions like this end up being correct. Do you think any of this is possible? If you found out that it was possible, what would you do?

 

[Cryozombie]

If you found out that it was possible, what would you do?

Me? Steal the technology and take over the world, Duh.

 

[Makalakumu]

Me? Steal the technology and take over the world, Duh.

I think a ransom of 1 million dollars would be in order...