A bill seeking to ban geoengineering and weather modification in Florida is swiftly moving through the Legislature. The bill would eliminate the use of experimental technology that attempts to mitigate the effects of climate change through direct intervention.
Proposed by state Senator Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, the bill would prohibit the release of any substance that could impact weather, sunlight or temperature in any way, effectively outlawing any future for weather modification in the state.
If passed, violators would be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor and up to a $100,000 fine.
It comes after a surge in conspiracy theories shared online alleging that contrails, the condensation trails left behind by airplanes, were spreading harmful chemicals coined “chemtrails.”
“Many of us senators receive concerns and complaints on a regular basis regarding these condensation trails, a.k.a. chemtrails to many. There’s a lot of skepticism in regards to this, and basically, what I wanted to do with this is try to look for a way to separate fact from fiction,” Garcia said in an Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government meeting held last week.
READ MORE: Staying cool in Miami: UM study looks at who is most at risk from dangerous heat
Amy Clement, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and president of American Geophysical Union's atmospheric sciences division, said these fears can be natural.
“I understand that when you see those things in the atmosphere it can look scary and they last for a really long time,” she said.
The contrails, she explained, are only water vapor. While they may have a slight temperature effect on the atmosphere, their impact overall is negligible.
The reality of weather modification
Partially rooted in contrail conspiracy, the proposed bill focuses on a significantly more debated question: should people be able to modify the environment?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines weather modification as, “any activity performed with the intention of producing artificial changes in the composition, behavior, or dynamics of the atmosphere.”
In practice this can take on several different forms from releasing aerosols that reflect sunlight back into space or triggering rainstorms. It also varies in scale. Weather modification is hyperlocal whereas geoengineering is traditionally discussed in a global sense, Clement explained.
“Emissions that happen in one part of the atmosphere of greenhouse gasses, impact the entire global planet,” she said. “Some of the geoengineering efforts being discussed are at that scale, like injecting aerosols into the stratosphere, they actually get spread very efficiently around the entire globe.”
Scientists have been considering these practices as a necessary alternative to long-term sustainable changes that have yet to come about.
“I think as a globe grappling with the question of what do we do about fossil fuel emissions and greenhouse gasses that there is a growing recognition that some places are warming at rates that need to be avoided,” Clement said.
“The only way to avoid them is through some kind of intervention, like a geoengineering or solar radiation management intervention.”
Cloud seeding, the practice of releasing particles into the atmosphere to induce precipitation, has been around for decades and is used in several states to help drought-stricken farmland.
CEO of Rainmaker, Augustus Doricko, spoke out against SB 56 at the last week's committee meeting.
“Florida is a very consequential state within the United States, and if weather modification is banned here, it sets a precedent to deprive farmers in even more arid regions of the country from getting access to water from cloud seeding,” he said.
Concern about geoengineering began to arise after scientists launched the first outdoor test of releasing aerosols into the atmosphere in 2024 with the hope of brightening clouds. They were ordered to shut down the practice soon after by officials concerned about human health.
The unease over the test combined with fear of contrails led to a wave of crackdowns on weather modification that have now made their way to Florida.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Garcia criticized the actions of Make Sunsets, a company that releases “reflective clouds”, water vapor, to deflect sunlight.
“No one in the Sunshine State of Florida should be permitted to engage in such actions,” she said. “It is essential that we prevent the arbitrary alteration of something as crucial as sunlight."
The bill passed its second Senate committee with a 10-2 vote and has one Senate committee and two house committees left before being sent to the floor of the House and Senate.
Copyright 2025 WLRN Public Media
