A bill in the Arizona Legislature would ban geoengineering and certain other weather modification measures, though it excludes cloud seeding.Cloud seeding has been the subject of studies and experiments in Arizona for many years as a way to coax more precipitation from clouds and increase water runoff.The bill would target attempts to remove carbon dioxide from the air or to inject chemicals into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight.As Arizona contends with one of the most severe long-term droughts on record, scientists and water managers have considered weather manipulation techniques to increase the state’s sporadic precipitation.But Republican lawmakers have advanced a bill in the Legislature, Senate Bill 1432, that would ban geoengineering projects in Arizona, casting doubt on the efficacy and safety of such methods. If passed, the bill would prohibit geoengineering in Arizona that disseminates chemicals or substances into the air that could manipulate sunlight intensity, reflecting solar radiation back to space. The bill was revised to exclude weather manipulation and cloud seeding, a technique Salt River Project has researched that could increase precipitation and safeguard Arizona’s water supply. SB1432 passed the Senate Natural Resources Committee and was sent to the full Senate for a vote. A similar bill in the House, HB2056, has not advanced. Geoengineering and weather manipulation have become entangled with conspiracy theories and controversy, and scientists and lawmakers across the country are wading into new territory as they explore solutions to drought and climate change. But what is geoengineering, and is weather manipulation possible or even effective in Arizona, one of the driest states in the country?“Geoengineering is being conflated with smaller-scale efforts like weather modification,” said Eric Betterton, a professor emeritus in hydrology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona. “Theoretically, it could work here, but it’s yet to be proven.” What is geoengineering?As climate change worsens due to the effects of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, scientists have explored geoengineering as a potential solution, or at least a way to mask the symptoms of a warming climate. Geoengineering is often associated with weather manipulation, but the two fields largely differ. Geoengineering is a blanket term to describe large-scale interventions in environmental processes to offset climate change. It focuses on the atmosphere’s composition, while weather manipulation aims to influence existing weather conditions. According to Betterton, there are two primary geoengineering tactics: carbon removal and solar geoengineering. Carbon geoengineering removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and injects it underground to reduce global warming. Solar geoengineering injects sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere and reflects sunlight, limiting the amount of heat trapped in the atmosphere. Carbon removal has been conducted on a large scale in the U.S. and Europe, and solar reflection has been investigated on smaller scales due to the controversial nature of injecting chemicals into the atmosphere. “The idea is one injects sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, and it is converted to sulfate aerosols,” Betterton said. “They become like a white haze and reflect some of the sunlight coming in and thereby cooling Earth.”But solar reflection can occur naturally. Scientists have …
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