Excluded from the Copenhagen Agenda:
Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) and Climate
Change
The manipulation of climate for military use
by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research,
December 5, 2009
The term
"environmental modification techniques" refers to any technique for
changing - through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes - the
dynamics, composition or structure of the Earth, including its biota,
lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or of outer space. (Convention on the Prohibition of
Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques,
United Nations, Geneva: 18 May 1977)
"Environmental
warfare is defined as the intentional modification or manipulation of the
natural ecology, such as climate and weather, earth systems such as the
ionosphere, magnetosphere, tectonic plate system, and/or the triggering of
seismic events (earthquakes) to cause intentional physical, economic, and
psycho-social, and physical destruction to an intended target geophysical or
population location, as part of strategic or tactical war."(Eco
News)
"[Weather modification] offers the war fighter a wide
range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary... Weather
modification will become a part of domestic and international security and
could be done unilaterally… It could have offensive and defensive
applications and even be used for deterrence purposes. The ability to
generate precipitation, fog and storms on earth or to modify space weather…
and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set
of [military] technologies."
(US Air Force document AF 2025 Final Report)
World leaders are meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009 with a view to
reaching an agreement on Global Warming. The debate on Climate Change focuses
on the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions and measures to reduce manmade CO2
emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
The underlying consensus is that
greenhouse gas emissions constitute the sole cause of climate instability.
Neither the governments nor the environmental action groups, have raised the
issue of "weather warfare" or "environmental modification
techniques (ENMOD)." for military use. Despite a vast body of scientific
knowledge, the issue of climatic manipulations for military use has been
excluded from the UN agenda on climate change.
John von Neumann noted at the height of
the Cold War (1955), with tremendous foresight that:
"Intervention in atmospheric
and climatic matters ....will unfold on a scale difficult to imagine at
present... [T]his will merge each nation’s affairs with those of every other,
more thoroughly than the threat of a nuclear or any other war would have
done." (Quoted in Spencer Weart, Environmental
Warfare: Climate Modification Schemes, Global Research, December
5, 2000
In 1977, an international Convention was
ratified by the UN General Assembly which banned "military or other
hostile use of environmental modification techniques having widespread,
long-lasting or severe effects." (AP, 18 May 1977). Both the US and the
Soviet Union were signatories to the Convention.
Guided by the interest of consolidating
peace, ... and of saving mankind from the danger of using new means of
warfare, (...) Recognizing that military ... use of such [environmental
modification techniques] could have effects extremely harmful to human
welfare, Desiring to prohibit effectively military ... use of environmental
modification techniques in order to eliminate the dangers to mankind. ... and
affirming their willingness to work towards the achievement of this
objective, (...) Each State Party to this Convention undertakes not to engage
in military ... use of environmental modification techniques having
widespread, long-lasting or severe effects as the means of destruction,
damage or injury to any other State Party. (Convention on the Prohibition of
Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques,
United Nations, Geneva, May 18, 1977. Entered into force: 5 October
1978, see full text of Convention in Annex)
The Convention defined
"'environmental modification techniques' as referring to any technique
for changing--through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes--the
dynamics, composition or structure of the earth, including its biota,
lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere or of outer space."
(Environmental Modification Ban Faithfully Observed, States Parties Declare,
UN Chronicle, July, 1984, Vol. 21, p. 27)
The substance of the 1977 Convention was
reasserted in very general terms in the Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) signed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro:
"States have... in accordance with
the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law,
the (...) responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction
or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas
beyond the limits of national jurisdiction." (UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change, New York, 1992
Following the 1992 Earth Summit, the
issue of Climate Change for military use was never raised in subsequent climate
change summits and venues under the auspices of the UNFCCC. The issue was
erased, forgotten. It is not part of the debate on climate change.
In February 1998, however, the European
Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defense Policy held
public hearings in Brussels on the U.S based weather warfare facility
developed under the HAARP program.
The Committee's "Motion for Resolution" submitted to the European
Parliament:
"Considers HAARP.[The High Frequency Active Auroral
Research Program based in Alaska].. by virtue of its
far-reaching impact on the environment to be a global concern and calls for
its legal, ecological and ethical implications to be examined by an
international independent body...; [the Committee] regrets the repeated
refusal of the United States Administration... to give evidence to the public
hearing ...into the environmental and public risks [of] the HAARP
program." (European Parliament, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security
and Defense Policy, Brussels, doc. no. A4-0005/99, 14 January 1999).
The Committee's request to draw up a
"Green Paper" on "the environmental impacts of military
activities", however, was casually dismissed on the grounds that the European
Commission lacked the required jurisdiction to delve into "the links
between environment and defense". Brussels was anxious to avoid a
showdown with Washington. (see European Report, 3 February 1999).
In 2007, The Daily Express
reported --following the release and declassification of British
government papers from the National Archives-- that:
"The [declassified] documents
reveal that both the US, which led the field, and the Soviet Union had secret
military programmes with the goal of controlling the world's climate.
"By the year 2025 the United States will own the weather, " one
scientist is said to have boasted.
...
These claims are dismissed by sceptics
as wild conspiracy theories and the stuff of James Bond movies but there is
growing evidence that the boundaries between science fiction and fact are
becoming increasingly blurred. The Americans now admit that they invested
L12million over five years during the Vietnam war on "cloud
seeding" - deliberately creating heavy rainfall to wash away enemy crops
and destroy supply routes on the Ho Chi Minh trail, in an operation codenamed
Project Popeye.
It is claimed that rainfall was
increased by a third in targeted areas, making the weather-manipulation
weapon a success. At the time, government officials said the region was prone
to heavy rain. (Weather War?,
Daily Express, July 16, 2007)
The possibility of climatic or
environmental manipulations as part of a military agenda, while formally
acknowledged by official government documents and the US military, has never
been considered relevant to the Climate debate. Military analysts are mute on
the subject. Meteorologists are not investigating the matter, and
environmentalists are strung on global warming and the Kyoto protocol.
The HAARP Program
The High-Frequency Active Auroral
Research Program (HAARP) based in Gokona, Alaska, has been in existence since
1992. It is part of a new generation of sophisticated weaponry under the US
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Operated by the Air Force Research
Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate, HAARP constitutes a system of
powerful antennas capable of creating "controlled local modifications of
the ionosphere" [upper layer of the atmosphere]:
HAARP has been presented to public
opinion as a program of scientific and academic research. US military
documents seem to suggest, however, that HAARP's main objective is to
"exploit the ionosphere for Department of Defense purposes." (See
Michel Chossudovsky, The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction: "Owning the Weather" for Military Use,
Global Research, September 27, 2004
Without explicitly referring to the
HAARP program, a US Air Force study points to the use of "induced
ionospheric modifications" as a means of altering weather patterns as
well as disrupting enemy communications and radar. (Ibid)
HAARP also has the ability of triggering
blackouts and disrupting the electricity power system of entire regions:
"Rosalie Bertell, president of the
International Institute of Concern for Public Health, says HAARP operates as
‘a gigantic heater that can cause major disruptions in the ionosphere,
creating not just holes, but long incisions in the protective layer that
keeps deadly radiation from bombarding the planet’.
Physicist Dr Bernard Eastlund called it
‘the largest ionospheric heater ever built’. HAARP is presented by the US Air
Force as a research programme, but military documents confirm its main
objective is to ‘induce ionospheric modifications’ with a view to altering
weather patterns and disrupting communications and radar.
According to a report by the Russian State
Duma: ‘The US plans to carry out large-scale experiments under the HAARP
programme [and] create weapons capable of breaking radio communication lines
and equipment installed on spaceships and rockets, provoke serious accidents
in electricity networks and in oil and gas pipelines, and have a negative
impact on the mental health of entire regions.’
Weather manipulation is the pre-emptive
weapon par excellence. It can be directed against enemy countries or
‘friendly nations’ without their knowledge, used to destabilise economies,
ecosystems and agriculture. It can also trigger havoc in financial and
commodity markets. The disruption in agriculture creates a greater dependency
on food aid and imported grain staples from the US and other Western countries."
(Michel Chossudovsky, Weather Warfare:
Beware the US military’s experiments with climatic warfare, The
Ecologist, December 2007)
An analysis of statements emanating from
the US Air Force points to the unthinkable: the covert manipulation of
weather patterns, communications systems and electric power as a weapon of
global warfare, enabling the US to disrupt and dominate entire regions of the
World. According to an official US Air force report
"Weather-modification offers the
war fighter a wide-range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary...
In the United States, weather-modification will likely become a part of
national security policy with both domestic and international applications.
Our government will pursue such a policy, depending on its interests, at
various levels." (US Air Force, emphasis added. Air University of the US
Air Force, AF 2025 Final Report, http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/
emphasis added)
Copenhagen CO15
The manipulation of climate for military
use is potentially a greater threat to humanity than CO2 emissions.
Why has it been excluded from the debate
under COP15, when the UN 1977 Convention states quite explicitly that
"military or any other hostile use of such techniques could have effects
extremely harmful to human welfare"? (Convention on the Prohibition of
Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques
United Nations, Geneva, 1977)
Why the camouflage?
Why are environmental modification techniques (ENMOD) not being debated by
the civil society and environmentalist organizations under the auspices of
the Alternative Forum KlimaForum09?
Related articles
Weather War?,
Daily Express, July 16, 2007
Michel Chossudovsky, Weather Warfare:
Beware the US military’s experiments with climatic warfare, The
Ecologist, December 2007
Michel Chossudovsky, The Ultimate
Weapon of Mass Destruction: "Owning the Weather" for Military Use,
Global Research, September 27, 2004
ANNEX
Adopted by
Resolution 31/72 of the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1976.
The Convention was opened for signature at Geneva on 18 May 1977.
Convention on
the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental
Modification Techniques
Determined to continue negotiations with
a view to achieving effective progress towards further measures in the field
of disarmament,
Recognizing that scientific and
technical advances may open new possibilities with respect to modification of
the environment,
Recalling the Declaration of the United
Nations Conference on the Human Environment, adopted at Stockholm on 16 June
1972,
Realizing that the use of environmental
modification techniques for peaceful purposes could improve the
interrelationship of man and nature and contribute to the preservation and
improvement of the environment for the benefit of present and future
generations,
Recognizing, however, that military or
any other hostile use of such techniques could have effects extremely harmful
to human welfare,
Desiring to prohibit effectively
military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques in
order to eliminate the dangers to mankind from such use, and affirming their
willingness to work towards the achievement of this objective,
Desiring also to contribute to the strengthening
of trust among nations and to the further improvement of the international
situation in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of
the United Nations,
Have agreed as follows:
Article I 1. Each State Party to this Convention
undertakes not to engage in military or any other hostile use of
environmental modification techniques having widespread, long-lasting or
severe effects as the means of destruction, damage or injury to any other
State Party.
2. Each State Party to this Convention
undertakes not to assist, encourage or induce any State, group of States or
international organization to engage in activities contrary to the provisions
of paragraph 1 of this article.
Article II As used in article 1, the
term "environmental modification techniques" refers to any
technique for changing - through the deliberate manipulation of natural
processes - the dynamics, composition or structure of the Earth, including
its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or of outer space.
Article III 1. The provisions of this
Convention shall not hinder the use of environmental modification techniques
for peaceful purposes and shall be without prejudice to the generally
recognized principles and applicable rules of international law concerning
such use.
2. The States Parties to this Convention
undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in, the fullest
possible exchange of scientific and technological information on the use of
environmental modification techniques for peaceful purposes. States Parties
in a position to do so shall contribute, alone or together with other States
or international organizations, to international economic and scientific
co-operation in the preservation, improvement and peaceful utilization of the
environment, with due consideration for the needs of the developing areas of
the world.
Article IV Each State Party to this
Convention undertakes to take any measures it considers necessary in
accordance with its constitutional processes to prohibit and prevent any
activity in violation of the provisions of the Convention anywhere under its
jurisdiction or control.
Article V 1. The States Parties to this Convention undertake to consult one
another and to co-operate in solving any problems which may arise in relation
to the objectives of, or in the application of the provisions of, the
Convention. Consultation and co-operation pursuant to this article may also
be undertaken through appropriate international procedures within the
framework of the United Nations and in accordance with its Charter. These
international procedures may include the services of appropriate
international organizations, as well as of a Consultative Committee of
Experts as provided for in paragraph 2 of this article.
2. For the purposes set forth in
paragraph 1 of this article, the Depositary shall within one month of the
receipt of a request from any State Party to this Convention, convene a
Consultative Committee of Experts. Any State Party may appoint an expert to
the Committee whose functions and rules of procedure are set out in the annex
which constitutes an integral part of this Convention. The Committee shall
transmit to the Depositary a summary of its findings of fact, incorporating
all views and information presented to the Committee during its proceedings.
The Depositary shall distribute the summary to all States Parties.
3. Any State Party to this Convention
which has reason to believe that any other State Party is acting in breach of
obligations deriving from the provisions of the Convention may lodge a
complaint with the Security Council of the United Nations. Such a complaint
should include all relevant information as well as all possible evidence
supporting ItS validity.
4. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes
to cooperate in carrying out any investigation which the Security Council may
initiate, in accordance with the provisions of the Charter of the United
Nations, on the basis of the complaint received by the Council. The Security
Council shall inform the States Parties of the results of the investigation.
5. Each State Party to this Convention
undertakes to provide or support assistance, in accordance with the
provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, to any State Party which so
requests, if the Security Council decides that such Party has been harmed or
is likely to be harmed as a result of violation of the Convention.
Article VI 1. Any State Party to this
Convention may propose amendments to the Convention. The text of any proposed
amendment shall be submitted to the Depositary, who shall promptly circulate
it to all States Parties.
2. An amendment shall enter into force
for all States Parties to this Convention which have accepted it, upon the
deposit with the Depositary of instruments of acceptance by a majority of
States Parties. Thereafter it shall enter into force for any remaining State
Party on the date of deposit of its instrument of acceptance.
Article VII This Convention shall be of
unlimited duration.
Article VIII 1. Five years after the
entry into force of this Convention, a conference of the States Parties to
the Convention shall be convened by the Depositary at Geneva, Switzerland.
The conference shall review the operation of the Convention with a view to
ensuring that its purposes and provisions are being realized, and shall in
particular examine the effectiveness of the provisions of paragraph 1 of
article I in eliminating the dangers of military or any other hostile use of
environmental modification techniques.
2. At intervals of not less than five
years thereafter, a majority of the States Parties to this Convention may
obtain, by submitting a proposal to this effect to the Depositary, the
convening of a conference with the same objectives.
3. If no conference has been convened
pursuant to paragraph 2 of this article within ten years following the
conclusion of a previous conference, the Depositary shall solicit the views
of all States Parties to this Convention concerning the convening of such a
conference. If one third or ten of the States Parties, whichever number is
less, respond affirmatively, the Depositary shall take immediate steps to
convene the conference.
Article IX 1. This Convention shall be
open to all States for signature. Any State which does not sign the Convention
before its entry into force in accordance with paragraph 3 of this article
may accede to it at any time.
2. This Convention shall be subject to
ratification by signatory States. Instruments of ratification or accession
shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
3. This Convention shall enter into
force upon the deposit of instruments of ratification by twenty Governments
in accordance with paragraph 2 of this article.
4. For those States whose instruments of
ratification or accession are deposited after the entry into force of this
Convention, it shall enter into force on the date of the deposit of their
instruments of ratification or accession.
5. The Depositary shall promptly inform
all signatory and acceding States of the date of each signature, the date of
deposit of each instrument of ratification or accession and the date of the
entry into force of this Convention and of any amendments thereto, as well as
of the receipt of other notices.
6. This Convention shall be registered
by the Depositary in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United
Nations.
Article X This Convention, of which the
Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally
authentic, shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, who shall send duly certified copies thereof to the Governments of
the signatory and acceding States.
In witness whereof, the undersigned,
being duly authorized thereto, have signed this Convention
Done at Geneva, on the 18 day of May
1977.
Annex to the Convention
Consultative Committee of Experts 1. The
Consultative Committee of Experts shall undertake to make appropriate
findings of fact and provide expert views relevant to any problem raised
pursuant to paragraph 1 of article V of this Convention by the State Party
requesting the convening of the Committee.
2. The work of the Consultative
Committee of Experts shall be organized in such a way as to permit it to
perform the functions set forth in paragraph 1 of this annex. The Committee
shall decide procedural questions relative to the organization of its work,
where possible by consensus, but otherwise by a majority of those present and
voting. There shall be no voting on matters of substance.
3. The Depositary or his representative
shall serve as the Chairman of the Committee.
4. Each expert may be assisted at
meetings by one or more advisers.
5. Each expert shall have the right,
through the Chairman, to request from States, and from international
organizations, such information and assistance as the expert considers
desirable for the accomplishment of the Committee's work.
Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16413