I was joking around with a friend of mine recently, discussing world politics, and we concluded the following:

The first country, state, entity, or person to figure out how to control the weather will automatically conquer the Earth.

There’s just no other way to slice it. Humanity is completely at the mercy of the elements, despite milennia of trying to combat them. Right now, as I write this, a gigantic storm named Irene is bearing down on my neck of the woods, and people are scurrying about like rats on a sinking ship. It’s gonna mess us up–knock down trees, cut power, do tons of damage, probably kill a few people–and it’s only a 2/5 on the scale of hurricanes.

Give a person or group of people that power and it’s all over, folks. Start paying them taxes, cause they got you over a barrel. If they can drop a tornado anywhere, send hurricanes like messenger boys, give one place rain and another place drought, there is no other power at our disposal that can compete. No fleet on earth could invade them, no airforce could make an approach, and no economy could withstand their assault or be immune to their influence.

To control the weather is to have the power of God.

Good thing it is essentially impossible to do.