Cloudbusting : Environmental Menace
by Joel Carlinsky
Wilhelm Reich, in his book, "The Murder of Christ" spoke of the harm done to the cause of freedom by irresponsible "Freedom Peddlers" and warned about the possibility that his own work would be similarly usurped by "Orgonomy Peddlers" who would use it in harmful ways. As with so much Reich said, this warning has been ignored by many people favorably disposed toward Reich and his work, many of whom are supporting and encouraging individuals whose reckless and irresponsible misuse of Reich's discoveries and incompetent and misguided efforts to "prove Reich right" are causing serious ecological damage.
Among the worst of these is a Dr. James DeMeo, of Ashland, Oregon, who has conducted numerous cloudbusting operations over many years and has caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people and done enormous damage to the environment.
Dr. DeMeo and his associates are doing a great deal of harm to the environment and innocent members of the public by incompetent cloudbusting operations conducted without proper ecological knowledge or concern for the environment. Their bungled operations have frequently resulted in devastation to ecosystems and other damages, including the deaths of many innocent bystanders, due to storms, floods, and freezing weather.
In 1989, DeMeo, then living in the San Francisco Bay area, conducted a series of cloudbusting operations in the Arizona desert. As recounted in his article in the Journal of Orgonomy, he first visited Arizona in March, two months before the rainy season starts, and within 3 days had produced rain. He subsequently visited Arizona one weekend each month during the 5-month rainy season and brought rain each time for a seasonal total of 5 times the normal rainfall for the area in which he was working.
Now, in any area with a well-defined wet season and dry season, all native plant and animal species are adapted to the normal dry season and need it. Small burrowing mammals such as pocket mice, kangaroo rats, gophers, etc.give birth underground in the dry season; if it rains unexpectedly at the wrong time of year, the burrows flood and the infants drown.
Reptiles such as snakes, lizards, the desert tortoise, which is on the endangered species list, and the Gila Monster, found only in Arizona, lay their eggs in the dry season under a thin coat of sand, just enough to hide them but allow the sun to incubate them. If it rains out of season, the sand is washed away and they lose a clutch of eggs.
These small mammals and reptiles are the base of the food chain and if their population crashes so will that of the owls, coyotes, badgers, and other predators that depend on them.
Seeds dispersed in desert sand will germinate when they become moist. If there is out-of-season rain too long before the rainy season starts, they get a "false start" and then die before the real rainy season comes with sufficiently prolonged rains` to keep them growing until they produce a new generation of seeds.
The following year, DeMeo undertook a series of weekend expeditions to Arizona durring the usual rainy season. Since this series of operations was planned far in advance, when it would have been impossible to know what the weather at the time would be like, it was obviously not an attempt to break a drought or restore normal conditions. It was intended to be conducted regardless of what he actual weather at the time` of the planned operation might turn out to be.
The published report of that project shows a 500% increase in rainfall over the course of the wet season. Ask any farmer what 5 times normal rainfall would do to his crops! Unlike plants in non-desert areas, most desert plants lack the mechanism that limits uptake of excessive wather. Most desert plants absorb all the water they can get, and will swell up and burst when they get twice normal rainfall. This applies especially to the Sagaro Cactus, the State Flower of Arizona, which is on the Endangered Species List.
In "Contact With Space", Reich described exactly what he did in Arizona. He spent 5 months in the desert. He drove 100 miles every day just to familiarize himself with the landscape so he could note any changes in it. By contrast, James DeMeo lived in Northern California and commuted to the desert one weekend a month.
After 5 months of patient work, Reich succeeded in obtaining a lush growth of grass WITHOUT A DROP OF RAIN HAVING FALLEN ---- That's right! Reich, according to his own report, did not create rain in the desert and did not want to!
In fact, he explicitly says that rain would have made it impossible to obtain the increase in plant growth he did obtain, since it would have drowned the developing vegetation. Reich's goal, in which he was successful only after 5 months of patient daily labor, was not to make rain, but to revive the stagnant energy field of the desert to the point where it could regulate itself and produce rain at its own times, not according to some man-made schedule.
DeMeo misses this point entirely. He produces rain on an artificial schedule only to create impressive charts and graphs, ignoring the catastrophic effects of 5 times normal rainfall on all plant and animal species, and then, totally disregarding what Reich plainly said, claims to have "replicated" Reich's work in the desert. He repeatly refers to "Reich's rainmaking expedition" and to Reich "making rain in the desert" when in fact Reich specifically said he did not do so.
In subsequent years DeMeo undertook two trips to Namibia to break droughts there with a cloudbuster. He also trained local operators and left equipment with them so that Namibia now has a permanent drought- abatement program in place. Under normal conditions -- normal for the last 5-6000 years, that is -- Southern Africa has a regular cycle of 3 or 4 good years followed by a drought year.
In the dry years, the prevailing winds pick up millions of tons of dust and carry it out over the ocean. About half of it falls into the ocean where it provides silica, phosphates, and other essential nutrients to the phytoplankton which are the base of the marine ecosystem food chain. So in years when Southern Africa has droughts, life in the South Atlantic flourishes and in years Southern Africa has good rains, the South Atlantic marine life dies back.
The remainder of the dust is carried over to Brazil, where it is the sole source of trace elements not found in Brazilian soils which are essential nutrients for many tropical rainforest plant species. Like the sea-life, the Brazilian rainforest therefore flourishes in years when Namibia has a drought and declines in years when Namibia has plenty of rain. By establishing a permanent drought abatement facility in Namibia, DeMeo has contributed to irreparable harm to the global environment. (1)
In another case of ecological ignorance and irresponsibility, he reports in one of his publications that to make up a long-standing water deficit during a recent series of dry years in California, he extended the rainy season by a month one year and 6 weeks another year. I have spoken to a biologist at the Point Reyes Bird Observatory who tells me that in both years in question they lost a significant percentage of baby birds due to inclement weather during the normally dry nesting season. Baby birds get pneumonia in wet weather. Incidentally, some of the birds affected were on the Endangered Species List. (2)
In several consecutive years in which there was a drought in California, DeMeo and the group he belongs to, known as the C.OR.E. Network, conducted a long series of operations in an effort to end the drought pattern. While some rains did fall, the drought prsisted. It was obvious from reading his reports that the problem was the cloudbuster itself. As a safety measure, DeMeo and his associates use cloudbusters operated by remote control. This is to protect the operator from too much exposure to DOR in the immediate vicinity of the cloudbuster.
The remote control equipment uses 12-volt D.C. batteries to power electrical servo-motors to elevate and turn the cloudbuster pipes. Electricity has an excitng effect on orgone, and the 12-volt D.C. current was enough to cause an over-excitation of the field of the cloudbuster, which was then imparted to the orgone energy field of the atmosphere, causing an expansion that counteracted the contraction they were trying to cause to bring rain.
As a result of this attempt to end the drought, it was instead prolonged. The drought would have been over much sooner if there had been no cloudbusting attempted.
DeMeo has also done cloudbusting operations in the Middle East. I have seen documentation obtained from the National Climate Data Center, in Ashville, North Carolina, showing numerous deaths of people in the region as a result of catastrophic weather during the periods in which he was operating there.
In addition to a cold snap that was the worst in recorded history and brought the first snow in 40 years to Israel, along with the deaths of 22 people in a snowslide in the mountains in Turkey, his own report contained documentation of people drowned in a flash-flood while camping in a normally dry riverbed, and several deaths in accidents caused by driving too fast under unfamiliar`conditions on rain-slicked roads. When questioned about this by some of his German collegues, DeMeo reportedly defensively replied that his operations in the Middle East had done so much good that a few` deaths were an acceptable price to pay. (3) (4) (5)
Dr.DeMeo also conducted a 4-year project in Eritria to increase rainfall in that normally very dry country. The project was, according to his own report, a great success. However the effective range of the cloudbuster is very large, and the weather it creates does not stop at national borders. At the same time the rains were falling on Eritria, they also were falling on surrounding countries, and in neighboring Kenya there were disasterous floods, killing many people, followed by epidemics of water-bourne diseases like cholera and malaria caused by the increase in mosquitos which found favorable breeding conditions in the now water-logged landscape. About 20,000 people died of diseases in Northern Kenya as a result of the successfull cloudbusting operations in nearby Eritria.
Dr. DeMeo has also acted as an advisor for some groups in Europe who look to him for guidance and expertise in cloudbusting. One such group was responsible for a severe storm that killed about 200 people in Central Europe. (4) (8)
DeMeo is the leader of a group called the C.O.R.E. (for Cosmic Orgone Engineering) network. Two other members of the group, Mr. John Schleining and Dr. Stephen Nagy, have on occasion taken it upon themselves to play Smokey the Bear and stop forest fires in Oregon. According to their own reports published in the Journal of Orgonomy, they have caused up to 2.5 inches of rain in a dry summer month which normally has about 0.25 inch. Ten times normal rainfall for that time of year! This is not drought relief; it is blatant disruption.The time to break a years- long drought is in the normal rainy season, not in what is normally the dry season.
Despite what Smokey told these people in grade school, natural wildfires have an important role in forest life-cycles and should not be prevented. They open up stands of trees so some can grow, recycle nutrients back into the soil, help some kinds of seeds germinate, and clear away underbrush that would otherwise accumulate enough in several years to cause an eventual really disastrous fire.By meddling in normal forest fire cycles, Schleining and Nagy are following an outmoded fire-suppression policy which the Forest Service now realizes was a mistake and has abandoned. (6)
According to the same report in the "Journal of Orgonomy", the cloudbuster was also used to prevent fire in another way besides increasing rainfall: it was used to decrease the number of lightning strikes in the area. Now, aside from its role in creating useful and necessary fires, lightning fixes atmospheric nitrogen into compounds plants can utilize. For plant species that lack a symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria on their roots, including many temperate-zone forest trees, lightning plays an essential role as a source of fertilizer, so this application of the cloudbuster, far from benefiting the environment, amounts to mere vandalism of Oregon's forests. (7)
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Documentation of Cloudbuster-related Damage By Dr. DeMeo and His Associates
(1) My claim that atmospheric dust transport from Africa is essential to South Atlantic and South American ecosystems and that therefore cloudbuster interference with droughts in Africa is irresponsible and damaging is documented by the following:
The New York Times' International Edition on October 29, 1992 contains an article about how hot "October winds scoop up the thin topsoil off the African savanna, swirl it high into the skies, and thrust it west on a journey that can stretch thousands of miles." The article
by Marlise Simons goes on to explain how "the severe and lethal droughts of Africa are a boon for life in the Atlantic Ocean and for soil and vegetation in the Americas."
by Marlise Simons goes on to explain how "the severe and lethal droughts of Africa are a boon for life in the Atlantic Ocean and for soil and vegetation in the Americas."
( Go to a public library and check out: Marlise Simons, "Winds Toss Africa's Soil,
Feeding Lands Far Away," New York Times, October 29, 1992.)
In addition to that New York Times account, There is also an article published in Tellus (1992, 44B, pp 133-149), a scientific journal, on "Saharan Dust in the Amazon Basin." The authors of the article, R. Swap, M. Garstang, and S. Greco of the University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences, are the same scientists who are featured in the New York Times account, and they make a compelling case that "Any strategy designed to preserve the Amazonian rain forest or any part thereof should equally concern itself with the inter-relationship between the rainforest, global climate, and the arid zones well removed from Amazonia."
Feeding Lands Far Away," New York Times, October 29, 1992.)
In addition to that New York Times account, There is also an article published in Tellus (1992, 44B, pp 133-149), a scientific journal, on "Saharan Dust in the Amazon Basin." The authors of the article, R. Swap, M. Garstang, and S. Greco of the University of Virginia Department of Environmental Sciences, are the same scientists who are featured in the New York Times account, and they make a compelling case that "Any strategy designed to preserve the Amazonian rain forest or any part thereof should equally concern itself with the inter-relationship between the rainforest, global climate, and the arid zones well removed from Amazonia."
(2) My source on bird mortality in wet nesting seasons is: Geoff Geupel, Pt. Reyes Bird Observatory, Bolinas, CA (415) 868-1221 ext 30.
(3) The dates of operations in the Middle East by Dr. DeMeo are in his own report posted on his website. Compare those dates with the following for evidence that those operations killed a number of innocent people:
The January 4, 1992 issue of the "Weekly Climate Bulletin," a newsletter published by the Climate Analysis Center of the United States Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports on a "New Year's Day storm [which] brought torrential rain and high wind to parts of the Middle East, forcing schools and businesses to close," flooding streets, blanketing Jerusalem with snow, "blacking-out" power for a fourth of the homes, creating "snow...for the first time in the mountains north of the Red Sea resort of Eilat," covering the mountains of northern Saudi Arabia with snow, downing
power lines and telephone lines in Lebanon, causing heavy avalanches in southeastern Turkey, and "killing 22 people."
power lines and telephone lines in Lebanon, causing heavy avalanches in southeastern Turkey, and "killing 22 people."
The "Global Climate Highlights Feature" page states that "Abnormally cold air has
settled over large sections of northern Africa, the Middle East, south-central Asia, and the Far East during the last two weeks."
settled over large sections of northern Africa, the Middle East, south-central Asia, and the Far East during the last two weeks."
(4) "I stopped all the financing of cloudbusting as the president of the Wilhelm Reich Society because of the side effects in 1992 because I pointed out that nobody knew about the dangerous side effects of the operations ! As a result, James DeMeo became a furious enemy towards me."
------Heiko Lasek
Berlin, Germany
(Personal communication to the author.)
(5) On page 96 of the Pulse of the Planet, #4 issue, there is
a report by DeMeo entitled "OROP ISRAEL 1991-1992," in which [DeMeo] does mention flooding, homes destroyed, and people dying from traffic accidents on flooded roads as a result of the heavy rains occuring after DeMeo's November 1991 cloudbusting operations in the Middle East.
a report by DeMeo entitled "OROP ISRAEL 1991-1992," in which [DeMeo] does mention flooding, homes destroyed, and people dying from traffic accidents on flooded roads as a result of the heavy rains occuring after DeMeo's November 1991 cloudbusting operations in the Middle East.
Quoting now from DeMeo's own report :
"Our research team had not anticipated the strength of the storms
which subsequently developed in the eastern Mediterranian.... When heavy
rains came, traffic often came to a standstill for hours. Previously
bone-dry river beds and conduits filled quickly, and overflowed onto major
roads.... A few deaths also occured on the highways due to the fatal
combination of rain-slickstreets and highway speeding, or when people
attempted to drive their cars through rain-swollen streams.... Additional
difficulties also occured in a few areas when power lines were knocked down
by heavy winds or accumulated snow, leaving many persons without power,
sometimes for days."
Here, in his own words, DeMeo admits to having participated in a scientific
experiment which appears to have wreaked havoc on the public while
concurrently serving as the direct or indirect cause of several deaths
which subsequently developed in the eastern Mediterranian.... When heavy
rains came, traffic often came to a standstill for hours. Previously
bone-dry river beds and conduits filled quickly, and overflowed onto major
roads.... A few deaths also occured on the highways due to the fatal
combination of rain-slickstreets and highway speeding, or when people
attempted to drive their cars through rain-swollen streams.... Additional
difficulties also occured in a few areas when power lines were knocked down
by heavy winds or accumulated snow, leaving many persons without power,
sometimes for days."
Here, in his own words, DeMeo admits to having participated in a scientific
experiment which appears to have wreaked havoc on the public while
concurrently serving as the direct or indirect cause of several deaths
(6) My source for forest fire information is: Cascadia Fire Ecology Education Project, P. O. Box 3563, Eugene, OR 97403. (503) 726-4738.
(7) An article published in "Science News," October 1995 documents an atmospheric chemist by the name of Pud Franzblau has discovered that lightning is a crucial ingredient
involved in the maintainence of life, because it "fixes," or breaks down, the nitrogen atoms
which exist in the air in a form unusable by plants, into a usable form. Up until Franzblau's fieldwork indicated that lightning is responsible for about 1 billion tons of nitrogen fixing (instead of only 10 million tons), researchers had thought that plants were the biggest nitrogen fixers on earth.
It should be apparent that messing around with the atmosphere with a cloud-buster without an inkling of its ramifications on the generation of lightning could have unforeseen, untoward consequences in the ecological system on nitrogen fixation, plant growth, and human existence.
involved in the maintainence of life, because it "fixes," or breaks down, the nitrogen atoms
which exist in the air in a form unusable by plants, into a usable form. Up until Franzblau's fieldwork indicated that lightning is responsible for about 1 billion tons of nitrogen fixing (instead of only 10 million tons), researchers had thought that plants were the biggest nitrogen fixers on earth.
It should be apparent that messing around with the atmosphere with a cloud-buster without an inkling of its ramifications on the generation of lightning could have unforeseen, untoward consequences in the ecological system on nitrogen fixation, plant growth, and human existence.
(8) Der Grund, warum für mich Cloudbusting lange Zeit kein Thema war, war eine Erfahrung, die ich in den 90er Jahren gemacht habe. Bei einer großangelegten Aktion, kam es zu einer internationalen Wetterkatastrophe, in deren Verlauf es etwa 200 Tote und Schäden im Bereich von 100 bis 200 Milliarden Dollar gab. Diese Aktion, an der eine Reihe von Leuten beteiligt waren, die sich heute in der orgonomischen Cloudbusting-Szene lautstark über die positiven Ergebnisse äußern, wurde daraufhin totgeschwiegen. Um keine rechtlichen Probleme zu schaffen, werde ich die genauen Umstände dieser Aktion auch nicht preisgeben. Obwohl diese Aktion (intern) als erfolgreich gewertet wurde, (weil eine monatelange DOR-Situation beendet werden konnte), werden das sowohl die Opfer und deren Angehörigen, wie auch die vielen Menschen, die ihre Existenz verloren haben, anders sehen. Außer den straf- und zivilrechtilichen Folgen, die das für alle Beteiligten haben könnte, wurden auch internationale Abkommen verletzt.
Jurgen Fisher
Jurgen Fisher
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