A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER

This account of what man has or has not been able to do about the weather is by turns exuberant and cynical, humorous but gung-ho-serious about US policy. The latter is not too surprising in that Green has been associate administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). After assessing the mixed successes of cloud-seeding, fog dispersal, lightning and hurricane defusing, he launches into some pithy summaries of the far-out schemes of river reversals, space-sowing with metal (an Edward Teller idea), and other grand schemes, either horrendous or heroic to contemplate (including Gerard O'Neill's blueprint for controlled-environment space colonies for earthlings). The point of all this is that we seem bent on innocent or malevolent alterations of the atmosphere. Unless precautions are taken and international agreements sought--especially in areas such as environmental warfare--we can only add to future threats to life. Green points out how difficult it is to determine which way the weather will go as we continue to add dust or aerosols to the atmosphere at the same time we increase carbon dioxide and build up heated layers. He argues sensibly for a Department of Environment which would enlarge the mandate of EPA to include effects on climate as well as on health. On the whole, this is a brisk, seasoned roundup on world weather problems from the perspective of a politically-minded environmentalist who gives more credit to human power to effect change--both political and climatic--than may be practically possible.