One of the most significant characteristics of modern society is its overwhelming dependence upon experts. This dependence appears to stem from three main forces: the growing complexity of problems faced by society, the fear of the individual that his own judgment may result in disastrous consequences, and the salesmanship of the experts. Advances in science and technology have produced problems which are beyond the capability of the individual to handle on his own, either because he feels he has insufficient knowledge, or insufficient power. At one time an individual could repair his own automobile, design and build his own house, or solve a family problem without advice from outside. Those days have now gone. Bombarded with increasingly complex gadgetry, by new discoveries about man and his physical world, and by new ideas about how to do things, the individual has turned to the expert to help him decide what course of action to follow. The experts have helped promote this process both by offering advice and by helping create problems to solve.The role of the professional has become institutionalized both in industry and in government. In particular, he has assumed an integral role in the policy-making process. Professionals are called in at the various stages of problem definition, the analysis of alternative solutions, selection of solutions,
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review. ESPITE its charm and wit, the oft-quoted aphorism attributed to Mark Twain, "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it,"' is hardly accurate. Men do, in fact, do something about the weather. They adapt to it or adjust to it, they move toward certain climatic regimes or away from them, and they have long contemplated weather modification. However, although geographers undoubtedly recognize that weather and climate have pervasive effects on human activity, there appears to have been a general decline in their interest in these relationships and in their ability to answer certain fundamental questions. These questions have become more and more important in recent years as man's ability to predict and modify the weather increases. THE MODERN ERA OF WEATHER MODIFICATIONTraditionally, human response to weather and climate has consisted in adaptation, adjustment, and movement.2 Men readily adapt physiologically to wide ranges of weather and climate. In a broad spectrum of human activity weather and climate have little perceptible effect on the activity pursued or on the rhythm of its pursuit. Other activities men can try to adjust to variations of weather and climate. This response functions on several levels. At a minimum level man changes his clothing to adjust to daily changes in the weather. At a more permanent level he insulates his home and installs a furnace or air conditioning to adjust to seasonal fluctuations; he builds stormproof structures to resist high winds; he develops weather-resistant crop varieties to withstand droughts or floods. A more drastic adjustment is HUMAN RESPONSE TO WEATHER movement to another place or region. Sometimes man finds that he is unable to withstand, physically or psychologically, severe climatic conditions, such as long periods of cold or heat or persistent rain. Technology helps him to adjust to these conditions, but it may be too costly, or it may result in such an artificial environment that he abandons it.True, there have been attempts almost since the dawn of civilization to increase or reduce rainfall, to suppress lightning, to disperse hailstorms. But lack of scientific proof of the success of these attempts caused weather modification to be regarded by most people as an interesting idea but impossible to achieve consistently. Most skeptical of all were the research scientists who were studying the atmosphere.3In the past few years, however, views about the possibility of modifying the weather have changed radically. Although the conclusion of the President's Advisory Committee on Weather Cont...
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