I learnt something very interesting that day. While the government would love more students to go into nuclear physics, what they needed now were students who would model the weather. Pakistan, along with everyone else, was going to be hit by the results of global warming and it was imperative for us to be prepared. But that wasn't the scary bit. The United States was actually spending a lot to model the weather of many parts of the globe, including our neighbourhood. When our scientists asked for data and simulations the request was denied. Weather modelling was being considered as a potential weapon and therefore all critical information was highly classified. I used to play Red Alert 2 on my PC. The Allied weather storm was as powerful, if not more deadly than the Soviet nuclear missile.
But it did not come with bad press, or the curse of deformed children. It was infact untraceable to its source.
I am in no way downplaying the role of global warming. It has made all of this much more dangerous. Warmer waters means more violent storms and much heavier rains. America itself has been hit by the worse storms in decades.
Weather is a funny thing because of the Butterfly Effect. It follows no given pattern and is in essence unpredictable. But our minds have grown sharper and our computing power stronger. We already seed clouds to cause rains. There may come a time when we can cause massive storms by just a small change in the conditions which will give the system a nudge to its more damaging state. I don't think we are there yet. Though some theorists (Zaid Hamid) certainly believe that our enemies have caused these very floods. And while you may not be a fan he does have something unique to say about most things.
No conventional war could have brought this much devastation. But maybe we just got bombed.
Hassan