The Facts
Everything you need to know in one page. Every claim is cited. Share this with anyone.
It's real and it's documented
Weather modification has been practiced in the U.S. for over 70 years.
Source: Dr. Roger Pielke Jr., sworn testimony, Congressional hearing Sept 16, 2025
9 U.S. states actively run cloud seeding programs using silver iodide, dry ice, and other agents.
Source: NOAA Weather Modification Activity Reports, 15 CFR Part 908
The federal government has a documented history of weather modification including Operation Popeye (weaponizing monsoons in Vietnam, declassified) and Project Stormfury (hurricane seeding, 1960s-70s).
Source: Congressional hearing testimony; declassified government records
Cloud seeding operators are required to report to NOAA — but a February 2026 GAO report found 78% of reports contain errors, 4 of 10 states had unreported activities, and NOAA has NEVER issued a single fine.
Source: GAO-26-108013: Weather Modification Oversight, February 2026
Who's doing it
Weather Modification International (Fargo, ND) is the world's largest operator with 35+ aircraft. Owned by Patrick & Jim Sweeney.
Source: See full operator profile
Rainmaker, a Peter Thiel-backed startup, was named during the Congressional hearing in connection with Texas flood concerns.
Source: See full operator profile
Make Sunsets is actively releasing sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere and selling 'cooling credits' — the only known private SAI deployer in the U.S.
Source: See full operator profile
Stardust Solutions — $75M funded geoengineering startup founded by Israeli nuclear scientists. The most funded geoengineering company in existence.
Source: See full operator profile
Bill Gates has funded geoengineering research with $8.5M+ since 2007 through FICER, managed by David Keith and Ken Caldeira.
The Degrees Initiative, a UK-based NGO funded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz's Open Philanthropy ($8M+), claims to put the Global South 'at the centre' of SRM research. But Geoengineering Monitor exposed it as 'Global Southwashing' — staff and decision-makers are dominated by the Global North, and 26 of 28 funded papers focus exclusively on SAI.
Source: Geoengineering Monitor: Global Southwashing investigation
The UK's ARIA launched a £57 million 'Exploring Climate Cooling' program — 21 geoengineering projects including SAI balloon experiments (potentially on US soil via Cornell), a £9.9M Arctic ice project, marine cloud brightening, and space mirrors. CIEL: 'The UK Government risks triggering a costly, dangerous race.' The Degrees Initiative received £2M from ARIA — 5 project leads came through Degrees' pipeline.
Source: ARIA funded projects (May 2025); CIEL condemnation; Geoengineering Monitor
An explosion of marine geoengineering companies are dumping materials into the ocean — magnesium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, kelp — and selling carbon credits based on unverified permanent capture. Planetary Technologies (Canada), Ebb Carbon (WA), Equatic (LA), and Running Tide (ME) are all active.
Source: Geoengineering Monitor: Venture capital fuels marine geoengineering explosion
BECCS accounted for ~90% of all CDR credits in Q2 2024 (~4.3M tonnes). Microsoft IS the carbon removal market — 91% of BECCS credit value, 67% of volume. These are futures contracts for capture that hasn't happened yet. Drax Group (UK), the main BECCS operator, is the UK's single largest CO2 emitter (13.3M tonnes/year) while receiving £869M in annual subsidies — and sources its wood pellets from American forests in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and Arkansas, disproportionately sited next to majority-Black communities.
Source: CDR.fyi Q2 2024; Geoengineering Monitor; Ember Climate
What independent testing has found
Direct atmospheric sampling from a NOAA flying lab (University of Maryland twin-engine Cessna, BWI to Albany) found aluminum oxide and barium sulfate nanoparticles at altitude — confirmed via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
Source: GeoengineeringWatch.org atmospheric sampling missions with SEM/TEM lab analysis
A second sampling mission on a Learjet (San Diego to Bay Area) using nanoparticle meters found elevated concentrations confined to the induced cloud layer — clean air above and below. Particles measured at 40-60 nanometers.
Source: GeoengineeringWatch.org West Coast sampling mission, peer-reviewed lab methodology
KSLA News 12 in Shreveport aired an investigation where a citizen collected atmospheric fallout samples in Stamps, Arkansas. Lab testing found barium, lead, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, selenium, and silver present in the samples.
Source: KSLA News 12 investigation, Southwest Arkansas — broadcast November 2007
State-certified lab testing of rainwater found aluminum at 3,450 parts per billion — described as 'highly toxic rain.'
Source: State-certified laboratory analysis of precipitation samples
The Air Force conducted an 8-year study (1993-2001) titled 'In vitro toxicity of aluminum nanoparticles in rat alveolar macrophages' — finding that aluminum nanoparticle exposure suppresses the ability of white blood cells to defend against airborne infections. They knew.
By 1977, 239 open-air biological tests had been conducted over unknowing US populations — documented in Congressional hearings.
Source: Congressional hearing records — documented historical fact
What military insiders have said
“When you start to find constituents coming on the base that you're trying to remove from the base and engineer out through different industrial processes, that was a red flag for me.”
— Kristen Meghan Edwards, USAF veteran (9 years active duty)
Brigadier General Charles Jones (USAF retired) was assigned to the 42nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron to pinpoint the exact altitudes of all jet engine contrails across Europe, North Africa, and the Eastern Atlantic. He states definitively that modern trails are 'much different from' normal contrails.
Source: Brig. Gen. Charles Jones, USAF retired, 1953-1962 service
Major General Richard Roellig (USAF retired, 34-year career, top secret clearance, 10 years at Raytheon) began observing abnormal contrails near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona in 2017. He confirmed from insider knowledge that classified programs are compartmentalized — 'You only are told what you need to know.'
Source: Maj. Gen. Richard Roellig, USAF retired, weapons systems acquisition
Project Cirrus (1947): The US military began hurricane manipulation programs. Operation Popeye: The US weaponized weather to create monsoons during the Vietnam War (declassified). Both are confirmed government programs.
Source: Declassified government records; Congressional record
What the government has said
“Americans have urgent and important questions about geoengineering and contrails. The American public deserves and expects honesty and transparency. For years, people who asked questions in good faith were dismissed, even vilified. That era is over.”
— EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin
“We've been trying to modify the weather for 70 years, and we don't know if we're modifying the weather.”
— Dr. Roger Pielke Jr.
“I probably would not want to do that.”
— Meteorologist Christopher Marks
When asked under oath if he'd drink water containing silver iodide
“It lays the predicate and foundation for the development of a weather satellite that will permit man to determine the world's cloud layer and ultimately to control the weather; and he who controls the weather will control the world.”
— Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson
Commencement address, Southwest Texas State University, May 27, 1962
“One that has gained my personal attention is stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI: a method of seeding the stratosphere with particles that can help reflect the sun's heat in much the same way that volcanic eruptions do.”
— CIA Director John Brennan
Over 500 scientists worldwide have signed a Solar Engineering Non-Use Agreement calling for a ban on outdoor geoengineering experiments.
Source: Solar Geoengineering Non-Use Agreement — Open Letter (585+ signatories)
What's happening to the environment
Flying insect biomass has declined 76% over 27 years — even inside protected nature reserves. Mid-summer populations down 82%.
Source: Hallmann et al. (2017), PLOS ONE — 63 nature protection areas in Germany, 1989-2016
Terrestrial insect abundance is declining approximately 9% per decade worldwide. 41% of insect species are declining and a third are threatened with extinction.
Source: van Klink et al. (2020), Science; Sanchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys (2019), Biological Conservation
Global ocean phytoplankton — the base of the marine food chain and a major oxygen source — has declined approximately 40% since 1950.
Metal pollutants at levels currently deemed 'safe' by regulators are harming terrestrial invertebrates — insects are more sensitive to metal exposure than vertebrates.
Atmospheric aerosol deposition has been shown to be toxic to marine phytoplankton, with anthropogenic emissions increasing toxic metal concentrations in aerosols.
Source: Paytan et al. (2009), PNAS
What's being done about it
3 states have ENACTED bans: Tennessee (April 2024), Florida (June 2025 — FELONY, up to 5 years prison), Louisiana (August 2025, up to $200K per violation).
Source: State legislature records
30+ states have introduced bills to ban or restrict weather modification.
The Clear Skies Act (H.R. 4403) was introduced in Congress to ban weather modification federally. Penalties: up to $100,000 and 5 years in prison.
Source: GovTrack.us — 119th Congress
A Congressional hearing titled "Playing God with the Weather" was held September 16, 2025, with sworn testimony from three expert witnesses.
193 governments agreed to a de facto international moratorium on geoengineering under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010 — reaffirmed in 2016 and again at COP16 in 2024 due to the proliferation of outdoor experiments.
Source: UN CBD Decision X/33 (2010); CBD COP16 (2024) — tracked by Geoengineering Monitor
The Hands Off Mother Earth (HOME) Alliance — 180+ orgs worldwide — helped cancel Harvard's SCoPEx stratospheric aerosol experiment (2024), shut down the Alameda marine cloud brightening trial (2024), and reaffirm the UN geoengineering moratorium.
Source: HOME Alliance / Geoengineering Monitor resistance timeline
An interactive world map tracks 1,700+ geoengineering experiments and projects globally — color-coded by type, with project details and backers identified.
Source: Geoengineering Monitor (ETC Group, Biofuelwatch, Heinrich Boell Foundation)
What you can do
Track flights over your area — see who owns them
Open flight tracker→Read the congressional hearing summary
Read the hearing→Find your state's legislation status
Check your state→Contact your Representative about H.R. 4403
Find your Rep→Support the federal lawsuit fund
The GeoFight→Explore 1,700+ geoengineering projects on the world map
Geoengineering Monitor Map→Share this page with someone who needs to see it