In “The National Security Case for U.S. Leadership in SRM Technology,” the dangers of Solar Radiation Management are laid out by George David Banks.
China operates the world’s largest weather-modification program, covering 5.5 million square kilometers annually for rainfall enhancement and hail suppression. It has poured substantial national resources into scaling these capabilities and related SRM research, including advanced Earth system modeling of stratospheric aerosol injection. Its military-civil fusion strategy raises the clear danger that dual-use technologies could be turned toward climate disruption in a conflict.
SRM is real and it is happening. It is an active suite of techniques designed to reflect sunlight and cool the planet, with stratospheric aerosol injection at the center. The risks are already shaping policy and power dynamics.
Thirty-six U.S. states have pursued legislation restricting or banning SRM-related activities. Florida, Louisiana, and Tennessee have passed bans. The fragmented domestic picture leaves a vacuum that private actors and foreign governments are already filling.
AI is the accelerant. Machine learning and reinforcement systems could shrink the unpredictability of SRM from years to months, enabling real-time aerosol dosing and adaptive delivery that make regional climate manipulation far more precise—and far more usable as a weapon.
There is no effective global governance. Voluntary principles lack teeth. The 1977 ENMOD treaty is outdated and unenforceable against modern SRM. Unilateral deployment risks shifting monsoons, triggering termination shock, damaging agriculture, and sparking attribution crises that escalate into conflict.
George David Banks is President and CEO of the American Council for Capital Formation, with over 17 years of U.S. government experience across Congress, the intelligence community, diplomatic service, and the White House. ACCF focuses on economic and energy policy that strengthens U.S. competitiveness.
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