Florida attorney general orders airports to report ‘weather modification’ activities

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) has ordered all airports in the state to report any geoengineering and “weather modification” activities or face penalties. 

Uthmeier urged all public-use airports in Florida in a Monday letter to adhere to S.B. 56, which was signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last month. Violators of the law face third-degree felony charges and a fine as high as $100,000. 

“Injecting our atmosphere with novel chemical compounds to block the sun is a dangerous path, especially in Florida, where sunshine is our most valuable resource,” Uthmeier said in the letter, the copy of which he shared on the social platform X. “Furthermore, as our hearts break for the victims of the flash floods in Texas, I can’t help but notice the possibility that weather modification could have played a role in this tragedy.”

The law went into effect at the beginning of this month. It bars the intentional release of substances, compounds and chemicals into the atmosphere in hopes of changing the weather, climate and temperature. 

From Oct. 1 onward, all operators are required to submit monthly reports to the Florida Department of Transportation disclosing the physical presence of any aircraft on public property, including public-use airports, that have equipment that could be used for either “weather modification” or geoengineering. Airports could lose state funding if they do not comply, Uthmeier warned in the letter. 

“Because airports are most likely to catch those who seek to weaponize science in order to push their agenda, your compliance with these reporting obligations is essential to keeping our state safe from these harmful chemicals and experiments,” the Florida attorney general said. 

The contrails conspiracy theory — the so-called “chemtrails” — has been floating around the internet for years. Contrails are the vapor trails left by aircraft, although some have alleged that the trails are chemicals used by the government to impose harm. Those and other similar weather modification conspiracies have cropped up in recent months. 

The Environmental Protection Agency webpage says that “chemtrails” is a term “some people use to inaccurately claim that contrails resulting from routine air traffic are actually an intentional release of dangerous chemicals or biological agents at high altitudes for a variety of nefarious purposes, including population control, mind control or attempts to geoengineer Earth or modify the weather.”

Some states have performed cloud seeding, a process of adding small particles, normally silver iodide crystals, to clouds in order to prompt snow or rain, according to the Government Accountability Office. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said earlier this month that she plans to put forward a bill to tackle “weather modification.”

“I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity. It will be a felony offense,” she said. 

—Updated at 3:47 p.m. EDT