Fact check: Can humans control extreme weather like Hurricane Milton?

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🗞️ Driving the news: As Florida braces for Hurricane Milton, conspiracy theories are circulating online, claiming the storm was geoengineered to target Republican voters
• Despite these claims, experts emphasize that hurricanes, fueled by climate change, are natural phenomena that cannot be controlled by humans
• The Category 5 storm is expected to bring devastating storm surges and flooding to Florida’s Gulf Coast

🔭 The context: Hurricane Milton comes just weeks after Hurricane Helene, which killed at least 230 people in the southeastern U.S.
• Conspiracy theories linking hurricanes to geoengineering efforts have resurfaced, though scientific consensus rejects the possibility of human control over such powerful natural events
• Historical attempts to manipulate weather, such as Project STORMFURY, failed and were abandoned decades ago

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: As climate change intensifies, hurricanes are becoming stronger and more frequent, posing greater risks to coastal regions
• Addressing misinformation and focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is crucial to mitigating the long-term effects of extreme weather

⏭️ What's next: The storm is set to make landfall near Tampa, with evacuation orders already issued
• Scientists continue to study how climate change fuels hurricanes, while efforts to explore large-scale climate interventions, like solar geoengineering, remain controversial and largely theoretical

💬 One quote: “If meteorologists could stop hurricanes, we would stop hurricanes” - Kristen Corbosiero, atmospheric sciences professor at the University at Albany

📈 One stat: Hurricane Milton could bring storm surges of up to 3.6 meters, the highest ever predicted for the Tampa Bay region

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