Controlling the weather: Is it possible?

you know they were talking about climate change yesterday and now we're learning that scientists and researchers are looking at how to change the weather on purpose that's right lasers now could one day manipulate rain and lightning CBS this morning contributor Michio Kaku is a physics professor at City College of New York professor nice to see you extraordinary seeing Al Gore and Bill Clinton there together with Charlie wasn't it that's right yeah they did not get into this discussion but it is fascinating I mean lasers really to change the weather that's right well as Mark Twain once famously said everyone complains about the weather but no one ever does anything about well instead of doing a rain dance we physicists are firing trillion want lasers into the sky to actually precipitate rain clouds and actually bring down lightning bolts this is potentially a game-changer but this is experimental it's experimental however in the laboratory so far it works when you have water vapor and you have dust particles or ice crystals you can precipitate rain it condenses around the seeds these seeds can also be created by laser beams by firing chili watt lasers you rip apart the electrons creating what I call ions and these ions act like seeds like dust particles bringing down rain and even lightning any good well I this is fascinates me in part because too I remember reading the stories that China had used this during the Olympics that the USSR had used this after Chernobyl to create rain clouds I mean what do those really work them we have some of these capabilities now inconclusive even in a sixty the CIA used this to bring down monsoons during the Vietnam War to wash out the Vietcong governments have been alleged to allege - right yeah now we realize that for decades now these governments have been alleged to have experimented with weather control but nothing conclusive this time we're begging in the laws of physics rather than simply waving our hands and Adri mumbo jumbo we're actually using trillion watt lasers now and in the laboratory sure enough they precipitate rain out of water vapor sure enough you can actually bring down electricity down the the beam so what does it mean but drought areas that need to have rain for crops and if they don't have him there's the consequences of famine well the bad news is if it's a clear blue sky it's not going to do anything at all because it only takes water vapor that's already in the air and condenses it however for floods for agriculture farmers for people planning waiting parties football games you name it outdoor events in agriculture and flooding and even hurricanes all of them could be subject to weather modification incredibly interesting professor Michio Kaku thank you so much

Channel: CBS News

Views: 415,959

Keywords: weather, science, michio kaku, control, lasers, rain, clouds, future, drought, video, videos, cbsnews.com video, cbs news video

Id: hm1_TfTgUag

Length: 2min 48sec (168 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 25 2013