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| - - The claim that a “climate weapon” has caused the record rainfall in Karlovo region in the beginning of September is false.
- The conspiracy theory claiming that the climate change is artificially caused and controlled by the USA through the HAARP program has been disproved many times.
The information that the event was the result of an “intentional manipulation of natural phenomena” began spreading through social media just a day after the floods in Karlovo region took place. According to those publications the destructive rainfall has been caused by the U.S. military “climate weapon” HAARP. The “revelations” were told to be made with the help of high-ranking Russian politicians such as the Russian president Vladimir Putin and the minister of defence of Russia Sergei Shoigu. Those social media publications also claim that the Bulgarian authorities have confirmed all those allegations.
A reader of Factcheck.bg reported to us about the case and we began searching for the sources of this widespread information.
The source of those false claims is the newly founded website Delnikbg.eu, where similar articles seem to appear on a daily basis. Delnikbg.eu cites TASS and RIA Novosti as its sources, but no such articles can be seen on the platforms of these Russian media channels. Delnikbg.eu has been founded on 21st August 2022. The articles on this website are written in capital letters and they are filled with spelling, grammatical and punctuation mistakes. The author of all these articles is one person named Plamen Dimitrov. In terms of interface and content the website is identical with Novinitebg.eu, Faktibg.eu, Nowbg.eu, which are known to spread falsified information and conspiracy theories. More details on those websites can be found here.
The claims about the intentionally caused floods from the U.S. army are being shared mainly in two Bulgarian Facebook groups – “We want gas and electricity! We don’t want USA’s politics!” („Ние искаме газ и ток! Не искаме политиката на САЩ!), which was founded on 30th August 2022, and “Facts and critical thinking” („Факти и критично мислене“). Among them the publication with the biggest popularity is one from 6th September 2022 according to which the caretaker PM of Bulgaria Galab Donev has “confirmed” the artificial source of the rainfall and the “HAARP attack”.
In fact, on 6th September 2022 during his visit in the flooded village of Karavelovo Galab Donev said that the only reason for the disaster in the region was the heavy rain (over 200-250 cubic meters per square meter). The caretaker PM said also that the ravines had been cleared and that there was no illegal logging in the area, thus denying what local people said were the main reasons for the devastating scale of the floods.
The conspiracy theory about the HAARP program being used as an artificial manipulator of natural phenomena is already worn-out. Claims about the intentional causing of natural disasters resurface after every major event of such type – flooding, earthquake, tsunami, etc. The conspiracy theories deny climate change and global warming as potential causes of such natural disasters. The conspirators find “signs” of a fabricated “world conspiracy against humanity”. More on that topic can be found here.
Comments about the artificial causing of natural disasters by the U.S. HAARP program can be seen after every severe flooding in Bulgaria (ex. the flood in the village of Biser, in the Asparuhovo district of Varna, in Mizia, now in the Karlovo region, etc.). The same conspiracy theory can be found even in articles of classic media channels.
The “HAARP” conspiracy is widely known in the whole world. One of the latest claims on that topic began spreading in August and it’s pretty viral in Australia right now. According to that claim the HAARP program can change the weather. Professor Fred Menk, an expert on Earth’s ionosphere and magnetosphere from the University of Newcastle, described this most recent Facebook claim as “nonsense”.
The weather control is not the only thing the conspirators around the globe assign to the HAARP program. Back in 2010 the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez claimed that HAARP or a program similar to it has caused the earthquake in Haiti. Similar “explanations” about the earthquake in Japan in March 2011, which led to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, can be found as well.
What is actually HAARP?
The meaning of the abbreviation of HAARP is as follows: High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program. HAARP in fact existed as a ionospheric research program.
The program started in 1990 as an initiative of the American Congress with the aim of gaining more knowledge about the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere and their influence on the spread of radio waves. The focal point of the program was to study the physical and electrical properties of Earth’s ionosphere, which could possibly influence the civil or military communication and navigational systems. Between 1990 and 2014 HAARP was mutually managed by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy. It was funded by them and the National Science Foundation.
The program was shut down in 2014 when the property of the facilities was transferred to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The university regularly organizes doors open days when their activities dealing with HAARP are being thoroughly explained.
Fact checked:
It’s not true that the HAARP program, managed by the U.S. army, has caused the heavy rainfall and respectful floods in the Karlovo region. Russian officials have not warned of the “activation” of HAARP, nor has the Bulgarian caretaker PM “confirmed” its usage. The American research program HAARP has existed till 2014, but it had nothing to do with “controlling the weather”.
Translated by Vanessa Nikolova
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