Can you steal clouds?
Making rain fall on demand is the principle of cloud seeding, a geoengineering technology that several Middle Eastern countries are banking on... and which fuels the fantasies of their neighbors, who fear being deprived of "their" water.
[This article is taken from special issue no. 108 of Courrier international, The Atlas of Resources, on sale since July 23, 2025.]
"It is estimated that around fifty countries are now deliberately manipulating clouds," Le Temps pointed out in March 2025. In short, these countries are triggering rain. This is done by seeding clouds with silver iodide, the Swiss daily reports, listing a number of examples.
“China has been using it for decades, notably with its Sky River project: thousands of cannons placed on the Tibetan plateau to 'bombard' the sky. Abu Dhabi is also very active, and while Israel seems to have stopped everything since 2021, Iran did not miss the opportunity to attack its best enemy by accusing it of 'cloud stealing' in 2018.” A senior Iranian armed forces official had indeed accused Israel and another country, later identified as the United Arab Emirates, of interfering with the country's climate and stealing its clouds and snow.
An accusation that the mullahs' regime made again in 2024, this time against Turkey. "It all started with a few images that went viral on social media," Forbes reported in January 2024 : photos showing conditions
Courrier International
