The podcast dives into the intriguing world of weather manipulation, where early pioneers like Irving Langmuir aimed to make deserts bloom and redirect hurricanes. It discusses the initial optimism surrounding geoengineering and contrasts it with the ethical dilemmas and controversies faced today. Through historical experiments, including cloud seeding and hurricane manipulation, it explores humanity's complex relationship with nature and the evolving perception of our ability to control the climate in the face of climate change challenges.
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Langmuir's Snow Experiment
Irving Langmuir observed a plane releasing dry ice into a cloud.
He witnessed snow falling from the cloud shortly after.
insights INSIGHT
GE's Research Culture
General Electric encouraged its scientists to pursue any research.
Irving Langmuir, a brilliant but absent-minded scientist, thrived in this environment.
question_answer ANECDOTE
From Wartime Research to Snow Making
During wartime research, Langmuir and Schaefer studied ice formation on airplane wings.
This sparked their interest in manipulating weather, leading to the discovery of dry ice's snow-inducing properties.
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In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. She meets biologists trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, engineers turning carbon emissions to stone in Iceland, Australian researchers developing a 'super coral' to survive on a hotter globe, and physicists contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere to cool the earth. Kolbert explores how human civilization's capacity for destruction has reshaped the natural world and how the very interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. The book is by turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic.
The Brothers Vonnegut
Science and Fiction in the House of Magic
Ginger Strand
The Brothers Vonnegut delves into the lives of Kurt Vonnegut, the renowned novelist, and his brother Bernard, a leading scientist at General Electric. The book explores how Bernard's work in weather modification influenced Kurt's writing, particularly in novels like Cat's Cradle. It offers a fascinating blend of biography, cultural history, and ethical inquiry into the intersection of science and fiction.
Today, the idea of controlling the weather is controversial. Scientists who research geoengineering have even received death threats. But once upon a time, people were optimistic about remaking the climate in entire regions of the world. They approached this science with a touching faith in the power of human creativity.
Absent-minded genius Irving Langmuir was one such scientist. He dreamt of making deserts bloom and conjuring rain from an arid sky. He even believed that his experiments with a hurricane had succeeded in redirecting its path.
Why did we stop trying to control the weather? And might geoengineering help us solve climate change - or have we missed our chance?
For a full list of sources, please visit timharford.com.
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford 
