Nukes & hurricanesBill Would Prohibit Use of Nukes against Hurricanes

On 1 June, the official first day of the hurricane season, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) introduced the Climate Change and Hurricane Correlation and Strategy Act which, among other things, explicitly prohibits the use of a nuclear weapon, or another “strategic weapon” – by the president or any other federal official — for the purpose of “altering weather patterns or addressing climate change.”

Last August, Axios reported that President Trump repeatedly asked DHS experts and other top national security officials to consider using nuclear bombs to weaken, destroy, or change the direction of hurricanes.

“They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they’re moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can’t we do that?” Trump reportedly asked aides during one hurricane briefing.

After Axios published the story, Trump falsely denied that he had suggested that nukes be used to deal with hurricanes, but the report was confirmed by several official who were pressed by Trump on the issue.

Garcia told the Washington Post that her proposed bill was written with Trump’s comments in mind. 

“My bill also makes sure nuclear weapons can’t be used against hurricanes. Normally I wouldn’t think we’d need to legislate something so obvious, but given remarks this President made in August 2019, apparently, we do. Such use would result in radioactive fallout and cause significant public health and environmental harm.”

Garcia notes that when her staff researched the subject, they discovered that the idea was put forth before.

James Fleming, a professor at Colby College, wrote a book about the idea — Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control– documenting how, from the beginning of the nuclear age, people have been intrigued by the possibility of using nukes to influence the weather.

In 1945, for example, Vladimir Zworykin, an associate research director at Radio Corporation of America, suggested that “if humans had technology to perfectly predict the weather, military forces could be sent out to disrupt storms before they formed, perhaps using atomic bombs.” 

According to CNN, the head of the U.S. Weather Service said in 1961 that he could “imagine the possibility someday of exploding a nuclear bomb on a hurricane far at sea.” The same year, UNESCO director Julian Huxley spoke about the subject.

In 1963 the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) went into effect, prohibiting signatory nations from testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere (underground nuclear tests were allowed).

Stanford University’s Scott Sagan told the Post that the PTBT would not actually prevent a president from using nukes to destroy or weaken a hurricane. “It would be a stupid thing to do, but it would not be an illegal thing to do,” Sagan said.

NOAA  dismissed the idea as impractical, noting that the energy released by nuclear weapons pales in comparison to the energy released by a typical hurricane, which the NOAA describes as comparable to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding “every 20 minutes.”

While the detonation of even several nuclear bombs would not weaken a hurricane or change its direction, experts note that the radioactive fallout released downwind could have catastrophic impacts for people and the environment.

“It was a bad idea when [the NOAA deemed it impractical],”  Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist and tropical cyclone expert at Colorado State University, told the Post, “and it’s still a bad idea.”

Axios’s reporting noted that Trump raised the idea not once, but on several occasions, including with top national security and intelligence aides.

Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert at MIT, does not see Trump’s queries as off-the-cuff comments. He told the Post that she is more worried.

“If we have a leader who would contemplate using a nuclear weapon on a hurricane,” he said, “we have a much more extensive and serious problem than could be covered by a specific bill like this one.”