Is it true that climate change is artificially caused and controlled by the USA through the HAARP program, which has caused the heavy rainfall in Bulgaria? No, that's not true: The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is a scientific facility, which operated in Alaska from 1993 to 2014. Its purpose was to study the ionosphere, a layer of the atmosphere that affects radio communication and satellite navigation. Conspiracy theorists claimed that HAARP was a secret weapon for controlling the weather, causing disasters, including the latest floods in June 2023 in Bulgaria. These claims are baseless and have no scientific evidence. Floods are natural phenomena that depend on many factors, such as rainfall, terrain, soil, vegetation, and human activity.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) published on June 6, 2023, showing an excerpt from the Bulgarian TV show "Point of View" with the title "HAARP- the sinister experiment. Climate management: Prof. Lachezar Filipov." It opened:
Nature is impacted by humans on a daily basis. Wretched creatures pretending to be God by managing processes. This led to the establishment in 1993 of the ultra-modern climate control system created by scientists involved in the HAARP project. The HAARP transmitter, located in Alaska, is a ground-based weapon with the ability to manipulate the environment, change the weather, disrupt global communication systems, and impact negatively human thought processes, health, and the upper atmosphere.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Jul 4 19:16:43 2023 UTC)
The false claim that the USA is manipulating the weather and causing climate change with a secret weapon called HAARP is popular on Bulgarian websites and social media. However, this claim has no scientific basis and has been debunked repeatedly by experts.
Philippe Marbaix, who currently works at the Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, told AFP in August 2022 that "the climate is essentially phenomena that occur in the troposphere, that is below 10 kilometers' altitude. Above that, is the stratosphere, which plays a role in the climate, but a secondary one." The ionosphere lies far above these two layers.
Gilles Wautelet, a Post Doctoral researcher at F.R.S. - FNRS, said in August 2022 that "the wavelengths of HAARP's transmissions -- measuring between 10 and 100 meters -- only affect the ionosphere, where particles are dense enough to reflect them. It is absurd to say that we can substantially modify the Earth's neutral atmosphere with the wavelength used by HAARP."
The claim that Bulgaria is affected by "the climate weapon" resurfaced the social media during the record rainfall in June 2023:
BULGARIAN SCIENTIST! BULGARIA IS ATTACKED BY HAARP! THE RAIN IS CONTROLLED! SHAME AND DISGRACE THAT THE CABINET IS SILENT! This is a proven technology, the USA is attacking Bulgaria with HAARP. It is not normal to have 200-300 liters per square meter. It is a shame that the cabinet is silent. This is genocide against our nation, the US is attacking us with HAARP. My name is Ivan Nedyalkov, a scientist from the Bulgarian Academy of Science.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Jul 4 21:14:42 2023 UTC)
Analysis of climate data shows that the basis of the numerous floods that have occurred in recent decades is always intense precipitation, in which amounts exceeding monthly and sometimes annual norms fall in a matter of hours.
The Prime Minister, Nikolay Denkov, reported that the government has taken urgent measures to prevent possible floods, such as lowering the water levels of the reservoirs. Taking adequate strategic measures by the state, local authorities and society become an urgent priority to preserve human lives and save material losses.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims about HAARP can be found here, here and here.
