He wants to give clouds international legal status. They are the “good of humanity”

The cloud day falls in France on March 29. The initiative was proposed by the writer Mathieu Simonet, and its purpose is to give clouds legal status in international regulations.

Simonet, a writer and lawyer, explained that clouds should be considered “common good” of humanity and protected by international law so that no country could independently decide on influencing them. He explained that the clouds currently have no legal status, they are available to everyone, but they are not governed by clear rules. The writer also presented a project to enter clouds on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Since the 1940s, “clouds' sowing”, i.e. the introduction of substances that promote water vapor condensation and rainfall. For example, silver iodide was used for this purpose. “Crushing clouds” can be used to combat drought, and is also used to suppress forest fires. For the first purpose, they were used, for example, by Brazil, Mexico and India, and during forest fires – the United States and Australia in 2020-21.

Simonet pointed out that influencing clouds can cause the risk of conflicts between countries, as in 2018, when representatives of the Iranian army accused Israel of “theft” of rain clouds – that is, preventing them from the territory of Iran. However, Iran's meteorological services have ruled out this possibility.

There are also concerns related to the use of methods of influencing the weather for military purposes. Defense against this procedure is the UN Convention on the ban on the use of technical environmental influences for military purposes (Enmod).

He proposed celebrating the International Simonet Cloud Day in 2022. At that time, about 650 children and teenagers in the town of Saint-Supplets in the capital's region ile-de-France created a “live chain” to give a letter to the Secretary General of the UN with a petition for the adoption of a special legal status regarding clouds.

This year, as part of the Simonet initiative, “poetic petitions” regarding clouds are accepted on the Sorbonne. Those willing on Saturday (and the day before, on Friday) were to lie on the grass, observe the clouds for five minutes, and then describe their impressions on a small piece of paper and send to the address of the Paris university.