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From The Hindu, June 19, 1975: Weather modification, new U.S. war weapon
New Delhi, June 18: Weather modification as a new weapon of war might have startling implications for the world, writes PTI's Science Correspondent. A new super weapon, mentioned by the Soviet Communist Party Chief, Mr. Brezhnev, in a speech last Friday, was subsequently identified by the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee's daily as a ghastly weather weapon developed by the United States.
According to a Geneva report, the American and Soviet experts are now negotiating a possible ban on meteorological warfare.
Military scientists have been developing techniques for dispersing fog, modifying cloud cover and lightning, handling hurricanes, and even producing rain or snow.
Prof. Edith Brown Weiss of Princeton University recently wrote in Survival (published by the Institute of Strategic Studies, London) that weather weapons resulting from such research are on the 'horizon.'
Prof. Weiss said that the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Defence Department has undertaken a worldwide climate modelling programme to detect modifications in climate and to predict the likely consequences.
'Attempts have been made to calculate the impact of introducing contaminants into the atmosphere and of depleting ozone', the Professor said.
Ozone shields people against dangerous ultraviolet rays of the sun.
