Clouds and conspiracies: concerns over push to make rain

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Paris: Can countries control the clouds? And they should?

Since the change of climate is due to floods and droughts, rain -making is in fashion worldwide, despite the mixed evidence that it works and fears can prevent cross -border tension.

Although efforts to overcome the weather may seem like a science fiction, countries have been erupting clouds for decades to seek rain or snow in certain areas.

Invented in the 1940s, the sowing contains a variety of techniques, including the inclusion of particles to the clouds by air.

It is used today to remove drought around the world, fight forest fires and even in the airports to try to disperse fog.

In 2008, China used it to try to stop rain at Beijing’s Olympic Stadium.

But experts say there is insufficient surveillance of this exercise, as countries show up in the planet’s warmth and other geo -engineering techniques.

The US meteorological society has said that the “non -intended results” of cloud sowing have not been clearly shown – or has been rejected – and has raised concerns that the amendment of the weather can cross the political boundaries.

But experts say the actual risk can be a matter of greater effects.

According to a research note published by Marine de Gigalimo Weber, a researcher at the French Strategic Research Institute at the Paris Military School (IRSEM), “if a country learns that its neighbor is changing the weather, the neighbor will be accused of explaining the drought.”

For example, China is one of the most important weather models in the world, which has launched the Sky River Initiative in 2018, with the aim of eliminating water shortages and promoting the country’s food security.

The country carried out operations on the Tibetan level, but De Giglielmo Weber warned that it could be seen to affect the availability of water in the flowing countries, such as its rival India.

French author Matthew Simonate, who has campaigned for clouds for the protection of the United Nations, said Beijing could withhold fake news and false information “in today’s explosive world”.

“I think the real risk of cloud theft is psychological,” he said.

For example, in 2018, an Iranian general accused Israel of “stealing clouds” to stop rain in Iran, which was currently suffering from severe drought.

In the context of “extremely severe informational confusion”, De Giglilmo Weber warned: “Sometimes these conspiracies are conspiracies,” he added, adding that the distrust of scientific institutions can be promoted.

In 2024, for example, after a major flood in southern Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, thousands of climate skeptical social media accounts spread false accusations that heavy rains were mobilized with cloud seeds.

De Giglielmo Weber said that the weather modification creates a challenge to prove or prove wrong.

And there are instances when cloud seeding was used deliberately in the war.

During the Vietnam War, the United States used it during the “Operation Pope”.

In response, the United Nations forbidden the 1976 Convention, which prohibited the “military or any other use of environmental amendment techniques.”

De Goglemo Weber said that many countries have not signed the convention. He added that the deal is “very limited” and that if a country causes a climate risk, it does not apply.

In an 2022 article for atom scientists’ bulletin, “researcher Laura Kohl said,” There is a significant threat that cloud sowing can do more harm than that. “

Kohl, an associate professor at the northeastern University of the United States, wrote, “Beijing of the cloud is probably the last silver pill, in the form of silver iodide, the silver is poured into the clouds, causing ice crystal or snow.”

He said that technical reforms like weather manipulation can divert attention from more complex debates and can strengthen things like access to unequal water.

Meanwhile, research on the effects of cloud seeds on neighboring areas is mixed – and some evidence suggests that it does not work very well in the target area.

A diagnosis published in 2019 by a specialist team about the amendment of the weather by the World Meteorological Organization has shown that sowing increases the “mandatory zero” and between 20 %.

He acknowledged that more countries are turning to the cloud seeds, but added: “Sometimes disappointing activities are based on empty promises rather than sound science.”