INVESTIGATION – Cloud seeding, which involves sending particles to make it rain or reduce hail, is a much more widespread technique than one might imagine around the world, including in France.
To whom do the clouds belong? This is not the first question that comes to mind when you look up at the sky, and yet… For decades, countries all over the world have been trying to manipulate them and sometimes spend crazy amounts to combat drought or hail, taking advantage of the legal vacuum surrounding cirrus, nimbostratus, and cumulonimbus. With the overall rise in temperatures, clouds have become a real economic issue, but also the subject of diplomatic tensions. On the occasion of the “International Day of Clouds”, the writer and former lawyer Mathieu Simonet (originator of this event not yet endorsed by the UN) is organizing a conference on March 29 at the City of Science and Industry in Paris, to reflect, among other things, on the legal status of clouds, in France and internationally.
It would be presumptuous to say that man wants to control the clouds. Their formation is a complex process that scientists…
