Fifty Years after “How to Wreck the Environment”: Anthropogenic Extinction of Life on Earth | Chapter 12 | Current Perspectives to Environment and Climate Change Vol. 1
Aims: Fifty years ago geoscientist Gordon J. F. MacDonald penned a book-chapter entitled, “How to Wreck the Environment”, in which he described how a nation might alter the environment so as to covertly inflict harm on an enemy nation. Our objective is to review MacDonald’s suggestions of environmental warfare strategies in light of subsequent technological advances, and in the context of actual deployment of the war methods he described. Methods: We review the interdisciplinary, historical, scientific and medical literature. Results: MacDonald discussed overt and covert weather warfare based upon seeding clouds to cause rainfall. Subsequently, a method was developed for inhibiting rainfall by jet-emplacing pollution particulates where clouds form. For at least two decades citizens have observed such particulate trails occurring with increasing frequency. Forensic scientific investigations implicate toxic coal fly ash as their main constituent. Around 2010, the aerial pa...