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International responses to weather modification

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Edith Brown Weiss
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Abstract

In the past few decades we have been improving our understanding of the weather system and exploring ways to modify it. Over sixty countries have experimented with modifying the weather. The new technology of weather and climate modification will raise important political problems which will demand new responses from the international community. Whether states will be able to establish the cooperative measures necessary to develop and manage new technology depends upon whether there are sufficient incentives to do so. This article analyzes the historical patterns of international cooperation in meteorology, and then plots against several time horizons projected developments and capabilities in weather modification technology and the potential problems emerging from using the technology. It derives a tentative picture of the responsibilities demanded, compares the likely responses with those needed, and assesses whether they will be adequate for the problems projected.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , Summer 1975 , pp. 805 - 826
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1975

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References

1 National Academy of Sciences, Weather and Climate Modification: Problems and Prospects, (Washington, D.C., 1966), vol. 1, p. 4Google Scholar.

2 National Academy of Sciences, Weather and Climate Modification (Washington, D.C., 1973)pp. 3–4Google ScholarPubMed.

3 Quotation by Ruskin, John, as given in Daniel, Howard, One Hundred Years of International Cooperation in Meteorology, 1873–1973 (World Meteorological Organization, 1973), p. 8Google Scholar.

4 For a review of the history of meteorological cooperation, see Daniel, Ibid; and Mieghim, Van Jr, “International Cooperation in Meteorology: An Historical Review,” International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, Report of Proceedings, (Toronto, 04 1968), pp. 109–28Google Scholar.

5 Department of State Bulletin, October 16, 1961, p. 622.

6 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1721 (XVI), December 20, 1961. See Documents on International Aspects of the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, 1954–1962, 88th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document no. 118, pp. 226–7.

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8 Ibid.

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14 In July 1973, the Senate voted 82–10 in favor of a resolution that the US should seek a treaty prohibiting “the use of any environmental or geophysical modification activity as a weapon of war.” S. Res. 71, Congressional Record, 07 11, 1973, pp. S. 1301–2Google Scholar.

15 Weather Modification, Hearings, US Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Oceans and International Environment (93rd Congress, 2nd Session) January 25 and March 20, 1974.

16 As early as 1971 the US National Academy of Sciences recommended that the United States submit a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly “dedicating all weather modification efforts to peaceful purposes.” Committee on Atmospheric Sciences, The Atmospheric Sciences and Man's Needs (National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C., 1971), p. 56Google Scholar.

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18 The text of the Statement on the Environment appears in The New York Times, July 4, 1974, p. 2, col. 8.

19 For the text of the convention, see UN Document A/C.1/L.675, September 24, 1974. The revised resolution as adopted by the UN First Committee is UN Doc. A/C.l/L.675/Rev. 1, November 20, 1974.

20 Zhukov, G. P., Vasilevskaya, E. G., and Lukin, P. I., Legal Aspects of the Utilization of Artificial Satellites for Meteorological and Radio Communication Purposes (NASA, Washington, D.C., 03 1971), p. 80Google Scholar.

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23 Report of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme on Its Second Session, Nairobi, 11 to 22 March 1974, UNEP/GC/26, April 10,1974.

24 Zhakov, Vasilevskaya, and Lukin, pp. 76–84.

25 The text of the Declaration appears in supra note 22.