'Fake Weather, Fake Flooding': Republicans Are Promoting an Unusual Conspiracy Theory Following the Deadly Floods in Texas
As Texas recovers from one of its deadliest floods, some Republicans are spreading a conspiracy theory that suggests that weather manipulation is to blame for the deadly flash floods that have killed at least 89 people.
Republicans, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have accused the scientific practice of being used to harm and kill, with Greene proposing a bill on Saturday that would make weather modification, also called cloud seeding, a felony.
“We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering,” she said one day after a storm dumped up to 12 inches of rain early Friday in parts of Kerr County, in central Texas, which is known for flash flooding.
Greene has previously suggested that weather manipulation has been used to harm Republican-majority areas in the south.
Fellow Republican and Congressional candidate Kandiss Taylor, who is vying for a seat alongside Greene in Georgia, also slammed the practice while directly blaming it for Texas’ incredible deaths and destruction.
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“This isn’t just ‘climate change.’ It’s cloud seeding, geoengineering, & manipulation,” she posted on X, without supplying any supporting evidence. “If fake weather causes real tragedy, that’s murder.”
“Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake,” she added in another post.
Cloud seeding has been successfully used to create rain and snow in some parts of the country, but the process is only able to target small areas and with very limited effects, as one atmospheric research scientist, who has a cloud seeding program in Nevada, told HuffPost back in January. His explanation followed Greene at the time publicly encouraging scientists to manipulate the weather to extinguish wildfires over Southern California, saying: “They know how to do it.” (Read why scientists said it’s likely impossible here.)
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) denied that weather manipulation has played a role in the devastating floods when asked about the conspiracy theory on Monday.
“To the best of my knowledge, there is zero evidence of anything related to anything like weather modification. The internet can be a strange place. People can come up with all sorts of crazy theories,” he told reporters.
While Cruz said he hasn’t heard of weather manipulation playing a role, he said he has heard of flood victims being harassed and targeted online, including one parent whose daughter remains missing from the riverside Christian camp, Camp Mystic.
“There’s a lot of people who are messed up and my call to everyone: There’s a time to have political fights, there’s a time to disagree, this is not the time,” he said.
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice also said Monday that local help hotlines have received “fake calls” from scammers reaching out to the families of the children missing, saying, “We have your kids, pay me money.”
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking,” Rice said.
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