This question is raising every body minds. We're always hearing about how amazing our scientific achievements are, and we're used to thinking we've mastered our surroundings. So why can't we just turn hurricanes off?

Scientists have tried to stop hurricanes — and failed miserably. In one of the most infamous attempts to slay a hurricane, Nobel laureate Irving Langmuir led a US military experiment in 1947 to seed Hurricane King with ice in hopes of sapping its vigor. The storm at the time was sliding away from the United States and losing strength.

Much of the research is focused on manipulating temperature, moisture, and wind to steer when and where these storms will occur. Many scientist tried different techniques which includes   Fly Supersonic Jets Into It, Giant Funnel to Divert Warm Water into the Ocean and even nuke but all of them are in preliminary stage.

Remember hurricanes are massive geophysical events, whose size and complexity are even bigger than most people realize. It always bear massive amount of energy swirling around. With our current state of knowledge, we are still not able to accurately predict which tropical disturbances will organize into more organized hurricanes, let alone forecast precise paths or intensity a week in advance. So there's no way of knowing which tropical storm will become a hurricane that threatens a major population center, early enough to act. Now as you suggested “Spreading an endothermic (absorbing energy) substance like potash onto the cloud of the hurricane will potentially reverse the vapor to cloud process and dissipate the clouds”.

The biggest worry about screwing with hurricanes is, you might create an effect that's worse than the problem you're trying to solve.  Although Potash is not having as such big impact on human health but I an imaginary situation think such high level of energy, even in the early form of storm may lead different chemical reactions/or other reaction than expected. Think may be the quality of  rain water  may be change. So in this way , we just don't want to mess around with complex geophysical phenomena without knowing what we're doing.

I think technological solutions are not always solutions. Hurricanes are part of our earth natural cycles. They supply moisture to parts of the world that would otherwise be bone dry. They also transport heat away from the equator, towards the poles. The problems is they are getting stronger and stronger and more frequent, why? Are we not responsible for it as a stakeholder. They are getting stronger because the global commons like Himalayas, arctic, poles and similar others are degrading. Ocean are getting warmer. Be these storms called as hurricanes , cyclones or typhoons, they are reflecting one thing “ we are valuable species but we are not superior to other, our role to understand and work with nature not conquer it”

Dear Kundan,

Thank you for your valuable contribution.

As you say we don't want to conquer nature, but we are facing increasingly stronger hurricanes undoubtedly due to man-made conditions. Therefore, we can tame the effects a bit without interfering too much.

Using potash, one of the few endothermic substances around, will not create unpredictable new phenomena more dangerous than a menacing hurricane. Although I have not done any experiments myself I just mention the subject for others that have the ability to make experiments.

If people start thinking for solutions like this they might find new inventions that can help humanity from dangerous situations.

I am a geologist who turned into an instructor and ever since I was asked to teach weather and climate I found the subject fascinating. I am also interested in applications.

A student of mine produced an ingenious method to tame tsunamis that has not been introduced anywhere as far as I know. His idea came to him overnight after he learned about tsunamis for the first time. He is a natural engineer-minded person, but he had not studied before and I doubt if he had finished high school.

Thanks again for your input Kundan.

Dear Michael Issigonis

Thanks for your comment. Undoubtedly we are facing increasingly stronger hurricanes, threatens to erode the many development gains made so far. It is likely to exacerbate the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The climate is changing and is very likely to continue changing. Even extensive efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions will only slow climate change, not avoid it. So, in my opinion, the technology like using chemical or any jet stream will be a temporary solution. In this all the technological approach must not be limited to mitigate the problem but also promote adaptation. Because a  key component of adaptation is technology. Technology can help protect society from changing climate conditions, improve productivity, and help in the more efficient use of threatened resources. As I am located in very close to the Bay of Bengal and in my study of Bangladesh and India cyclone preparedness, I found technological advancement in the adaptation like building design helps  a lot in reducing impact and destruction.

Undoubtedly, to promote and make people aware of it, a multidisciplinary scholar like you play a vital role. Personally, I highly appreciate your question and comments which bound me to think with different points of view.

Thank you Kundan for your excellent contribution.

You are very correct to say that humans cannot change the weather and technology can do little to tame nature. We still have to convince the unconvinced to change their ways to minimize their contribution to climate change. A combined effort of all humans is needed to slow down their effects on the climate.

I wonder how many hurricanes like Irma are needed to convince all humanity to act before they are hit by another Irma? Not even Donald Trump is convinced yet, probably because he was not hit directly.

Thanks again for your interest and your input.

Recent NASA research results show that human actions about climate change have had a far-reaching impact on natural systems, including melting of ice sheets, faster crop blooms in Europe, and declining lake productivity in Africa. Research conducted by Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Science in New York and researchers from 10 different institutions are trying to make the physical and biological impacts that have occurred since the 1970s along with the increase in temperature over the period. As a result, the warming that occurs widely is derived from the impact of human activity throughout the Earth.

Thank you Andysah Putera for your contribution and for finding relevant research data on climate change.

So much has been done by the scientific community yet not many steps have been taken by governments and individuals who are waiting until they are hit by the next extreme weather event. More should be done to slow down the warming of the oceans by individuals, such as avoiding the use of fossil fuels.

Thanks again for your input!