Florida Legislature Passes Bill to Criminalize Weather Modification Activities

The bill advanced to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk to be signed into law.

A BQ-100 Beechcraft aircraft fitted with canisters containing Silver Iodide, Sodium Chloride and Potassium Chloride on its wings takes off during cloud seeding experiment Project Varshadhari at Jakkur Airport in the Indian city of Bangalore on Aug. 21, 2017. Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images

The Florida Legislature became the first in the nation to pass a bill criminalizing methods of weather modification and bioengineering activities such as cloud seeding.

SB 56, now bound for Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk, states, “The injection, release, or dispersion, by any means, of a chemical, a chemical compound, a substance, or an apparatus into the atmosphere within the borders of this state for the express purpose of affecting the temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight is prohibited.”

Any person caught doing so would be charged with a third-degree felony, punishable with up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. All funds collected through the enforcement of this new law would be deposited in the Air Pollution Control Trust Fund and would be strictly used for air pollution control purposes.

The language of the bill accounts for both private individuals and corporate entities, and ensures that a general report line will be open for any person to submit via email. All operators of public infrastructure, like airports, will be required to submit monthly reports on weather modification or geoeingeneering to the Department of Transportation beginning Oct. 1.

The bill was championed by state Rep. Kevin Steele and state Sen. Ileana Garcia, in their respective chambers. Both are Republicans. The legislation passed in the state Senate with a vote of 28–9 on April 3, and the state House on April 30 by a vote of 82–28.

Steele published a fact sheet highlighting that the state’s current statute allowed for two kinds of weather modification with a permit: cloud seeding and solar radiation modification. However, there were no penalties in place for not pulling a permit.

Cloud seeding involves dispensing heavy metals such as silver iodide into the atmosphere to induce precipitation, and solar radiation modification, or solar geoengineering, is the process of using heavy metals such as sulfur dioxide to reflect more of the sun’s rays back into space in an effort to curb global warming.

“Heavy metals, which are found in weather modification patents, can have severe effects on human health when ingested, inhaled, or touches our skin,” the fact sheet stated.

Those possible effects include kidney damage, liver cancer, neurological damage, autism, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and immune system dysfunction.

Several states on both sides of the political aisle already allow or even fund weather modification, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Texas, and Wyoming. At the same time, other states including Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, and Tennessee have already taken measures to ban or restrict it.

The Epoch Times has reached out to both Garcia and Steele for comment.

The news of the bill’s passage was celebrated on social media platform X, including by a grassroots coalition called the Global Wellness Forum.

“Florida is sending a loud and clear message: we will protect our skies and we will not allow corporate interests, climate change interventionists, or covert operations to tamper with our atmosphere or pollute our environment,” the group stated.