Safeguarding the Planet from Environmental Warfare and Climate Disaster Capitalism: The ENMOD Treaty, UN-Natural Disasters in the Faux Anthropocene

“The environment is not collateral damage. It is a new frontline of hybrid warfare, and defending it is quite literally defending life itself,” -- Ruslan Spirin, a Ukrainian diplomat based in Kyiv.

One military official was quoted in Seymour Hersh’s article as saying “What’s worse, dropping bombs or rain?” Operation Popeye in Vietnam.

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker arrived in Sri Lanka December 11, 2025 in the wake of the unprecedentedly devastating storm ‘Ditwah’ that seemed designed to wreck food security, essential energy and transport infrastructure, and deepen the IMF Eurobond US Dollar debt trap sprung around the geostrategic Indian Ocean island that has lost Economic Sovereignty. During Hooker’s visit US C-301 Hercules Planes that may be used in cloud seeding operations were already in Sri Lanka Air force bases along with 60 US military personnel purportedly to provide ‘humanitarian aid’. The presence of US armed forces boots on the ground along with experts from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NMOC) that arrived in Sri Lanka 5 days before the floods and landslides with US war toys and other equipment in Sri Lanka are unprecedented and concerning developments to discerning citizens in the historically Non-Aligned geo-strategic island nation at the center of the Indian Ocean World. After all, the county had been through a globally networked local ‘ethnic conflict’ unfold as part of a regional Cold War Proxy conflict that ran for 30 years, 1983-2009. Storm Ditwah seems to represent a seamless blend of geoengineering and Geopolitics in an era when the US aims to Own the Weather and Hybrid War masked by empty rhetoric about the ‘rules based order’?

The Environmental Modification Treaty and Operation Popeye

The Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD) formally the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques is an international treaty prohibiting the military or other hostile use of Geoengineering and environmental modification techniques.

In simple language, the ENMOD treaty prohibits weather warfare also referred to as Geoengineering technologies. The treaty opened for signature on 18 May 1977 in Geneva and entered into force on 5 October 1978.

ENMOD emerged from concerns raised in the international community over the United States use of weather warfare, specifically Operation Popeye that began in 1963. Operation Popeye was a Cloud Seeding / Rainmaking program to flood Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh trail during the Vietnam War to destroy enemy fighters and their supply routes. The story was broken by award winning journalist Seymour Hersh in an article “rainmaking used as a weapon by US’ that revealed that the U.S. was engaged in covert weather warfare in Vietnam”.

Under Operation Popeye cloud seeding was used to extend the annual monsoons in Vietnam in order to ‘drown in Mud’ the Vietnamese troops fighting the US armed forces in South Vietnam. Rainmaking, floods and landslides would impede the Viet Minh’s food, fuel and arms supply routes linking to China and Russia during the Cold war. These supply routes also ran through forests in Cambodia and Laos -- the famous Ho Chi Minh trail and Kuchi tunnels around Saigon at the height of the Cold War and Washington’s anti-communist crusade in the decolonizing Global South.

The Cold War ran hot in Vietnam and the Indo-China theater, Southeast Asia’s thick tropical forests and inhabitants in were also subject to Chemical and Biological warfare. Agent Orange was used for defoliation and air visibility for US bombing sorties of the Ho Chi Minh trail and have scared generations of Vietnamese. There are high rates of disability cancer and illness in communities along the Ho Chi Minh trail that were subject to Chemical and Bioweapons. Other Cold War operations occurred in Burma.

Before that Napalm or “sticky fire”, deoxygenating compound that adheres to and burns on surfaces, creating a conflagration was used during an attack on Berlin in March 1944. It was also widely deployed by the French in the First Indochina War (1946-54), and American forces in the Korean War (1950-53).

The Lab made SAR-COV-2 virus later named Covid-19 Pandemic as part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global lockdown to impoverish the Global South and emerging economies while promoting digitalization for global governance under Emergency Rule was also part of bio-warfare research and development in the Military Business Industrial Complex: Namely, Gain of Function Research (GoF) of the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA), which also funded ModeRNA’s’s mRNA dual use virus and vaccine research program.

Dual use programs are designed to benefit big corporate funders as well. In the case of Covid-19 Big Pharma profits from disaster capitalism for Pfizer and other vaccine manufacturers and biotech companies including PCR testing equipment manufacturers were high. Similarly, the Fall Army Work (Sena Caterpillar to destroy food crops), enables staging food scarcities and concomitant manipulation of commodities markets.

Despite the ENMOD treaty banning weather modification for hostile use research and development in weather modification technologies for Cloud seeding have continued and become increasingly sophisticated. Thus, recently, Rainmaker Technology’s bid to deploy cloud-seeding flares on small drones was met by resistance from the airline pilots union, which has urged the Federal Aviation Administration to consider denying the startup’s request unless it meets stricter safety guidelines.

Sophisticated Rain Maker drones are also developed and available in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Middle East. Meanwhile, Gaza has been flooded after the Fake Peace accords as the de-population agenda continues to turn Gaza into a Middle Eastern Riviera.

Some experts surmise that Rainmaker drones and essential chemicals to trigger the extraordinary rainmaking, floods and landslides, were brought into Sri Lanka in some of the 325 Containers marked ‘dangerous’ that evaded customs security clearance.

Operation Popeye to Operation Ditwah: Weather as a Force Multiplier

An important Report “Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025” produced in the US Department of Defense that was recently renamed the Department of War, provides extensive and detailed analysis of weather modification and warfare technologies being developed back in 1996 --with 2025 scenario planning The report was designed to comply with a directive from the chief of staff of the Air Force to examine the concepts, capabilities, and technologies the United States will require to remain the dominant air and space force in the future” produced in the Department of Defense”.

Released as a 1997 U.S. Air Force research paper, the report “Weather as a Force Multiplier” suggested that by 2025, aerospace forces could use emerging technologies (like advanced modeling, sensors, and weather modification techniques) to shape battlefields by disrupting enemies, offering strategic military dominance through localized weather control. The report outlines a strategy for integrating weather control into military objectives, anticipating potential societal concerns but stressing the strategic necessity of pursuing such capabilities for future warfare, even touching on futuristic ideas like “artificial weather” via nanotechnology. 

Key Concepts from the Paper include Strategic Advantage: “Owning the weather” means controlling localized weather to create advantages, like fog for cover, rain for disrupting electronics, or clear skies for air ops. Enabling Technologies: The paper highlighted Advanced nonlinear modeling, Computational power, Global sensor networks which no doubt include Elon Musk’s Starlink that recently became operational in Sri Lanka.

It included Weather intervention methods (e.g., carbon dust for precipitation and Stealth Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAVs, Drones) for dispersal and envisioned manipulating weather for a full spectrum of military needs, from tactical support to strategic communication control while acknowledging the Controversial Nature of weather modification as a high-risk/high-reward endeavor, comparing its potential impact to nuclear power. 

The report also refers to the High Altitude Auroral Research Program (HAARP), in Alaska Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), High Altitude Lazar Weapons (HEL), drone use. An operational capabilities matrix lists Precipitation Enhancement, Storm Enhancement, flooding lines of operation, as well as, Precipitation denial, fog and cloud removal to deny concealment, deny fresh water, induce drought etc.

Clearly, you do not need to be a supporter of President Donald Trump to be a climate Skeptic. You just need to have access to some of the vast intelligence information system of the Military Business Industrial Research and Infotainment Complex that President Trump is familiar with, lateral and critical thinking skills to cross-check the data and grand narratives against empirical reality. And of course, it helps if you know some history and geography.

Hybrid Environmental Warfare: Messing with the Monsoons

Recently, the Indian Ocean region with South and Southeast Asia identified as growth hubs of the world in the ‘Asian Century’ has become the epicenter of hybrid warfare including Monsoon geoengineering with weather modification technologies greatly enhanced by the use of Drones.

The last week of November 2025 saw monsoon related weather warfare in Sri Lanka and other geostrategic Southeast Asian island nations on the Indian Ocean maritime trade, energy and submarine Data Cable Routes that had previously been hit by the 2004 Christmas/ Boxing Day Earthquake and Tsunamis that killed over a 100,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, and India before travelling to the East coast of Africa.

On November 28, Sri Lanka was hit by mysterious high velocity tornado style twisters reminiscent on Operation Popeye. The storms hit just as the geostrategic Indian Ocean country was preparing to host Indian, Russian, Malaysian, Malidivian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani naval ships for a Fleet Review celebration of the Sri Lanka Navy’s 75th anniversary. From the Indian Navy, the Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant and INS Udaygiri had arrived in the Colombo port- the busiest in South Asia.

The US which considers itself the owner of the “free and open ‘Indo-Pacific’ has not been invited to participate at the Fleet Review at South Asia’s busiest port. Thus a ‘cyclone’ named Ditwah from Yemen hit two days before the Fleet Review scheduled at the Colombo Port and South Asia’s busiest habour for November 30, and effectively aborted the event. Remarkably, just five days before to the devastating storm Ditwah hit Sri Lanka a team of ‘experts’ attached to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US Department of Commerce and the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command (NMOC) had arrived in Sri Lanka purportedly to help expand the country’s hydrographic mapping skills, November 22. .

Cyclone Ditwah had a very mysterious disorganized pincer trajectory, and unprecedented twister tornado impacts across the geostrategic island that is already caught in an IMF Eurobond debt trap. Back in 2022 when staged protests and regime change took place to capitulate the geostrategic island into the arms of the famine and electricity scarcity has been promised!

The curiously named storm Ditwah inflicted maximum damage to strategic transport and energy infrastructure and cities and crops and food security, deepening the economic crisis just as the tourism season was beginning. A Double, triple, or quadruple whammy! It was like Operation Popeye that had four main objectives: to turn the roads to mud, to cause landslides along roadways, to wash out river crossings, and to keep roads muddier for longer than usual.

Ditwah was reported to have originated in Arugam Bay, Pottuvil region where the US Ambassador had the previous year predicted terror attacks perhaps also given the settlement of Israeli ‘tourists’ and Chabad Houses on the southeast coast, and then headed West spreading disaster across the central hill country to Kandy and then mysteriously turned around and went northeast to the coveted Deep Sea Harbour of Trincomallee only to dissipate before landfall in South India.

Its impacts were even more mysterious than its trajectory--designed to destroy the country’s resilience?

PART 2

Safeguarding the Planet from Climate Disaster Capitalism and ESG Green and Blue Bond scams

The Cyclonic Twister storms of Ditwah’s ferocity was blamed on “climate change” rather than escalating Geoengineering, hybrid and weather warfare across the Indian Ocean region. The United Nation’s faux Anthropocene narrative has become a front for many distortions.

In Sri Lanka the usual distracting blame game among government agencies, the ruling pseudo left National Peoples Party puppet regime of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake unfolded with the usual overload of humanitarian stories woven into contradictory messaging and outright disinformation in the corporate and social media.

The corporate media channels in thrall of the US war machine distributing the donations raised from the people of Lanka asked no questions about the presence of US war toys and military boots on the ground in a county with a competent and experienced military. Neighbouring India had sent military hospitals. Meanwhile, Japan moved in to set up another field hospital.

It is increasingly clear that the UN’s ‘Anthropocene’ climate crisis narrative masks unnatural natural disasters, staged climate crises as part of hybrid weather warfare that contravenes the ENMOD Treaty. At the UN CoP summits the Military Business Industrial Complex and the need to shut down environment polluting military bases of which US has 800 is never mentioned. Rather, fossil fuel lobbies are targeted by civil society activists following Greta Thunberg’s example.

Indeed, the Climate Crisis narrative enabled misrecognizing the chief source of environment pollution on the planet and ensures that geoengineered climate crimes are Plausibly Deniabile. Rather he UN Secretary General Antonio Guterrez “climate boiling” narrative helps masks UN-natural disasters and targeting Mother Nature, which has been turned into an “enemy”. Thus, too UN’s climate CoP summits by ignoring the MILBUS and focus of fossil fuel companies increasingly conceals the Military Business Research and Industrial Complex that are the main source of climate pollution.

The Anthropocene Climate Crisis narrative enables greenwashing of corporate and financial interests and related stock and green and blue (sustainability and Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) bond scams. Climate Disaster Capitalism including Green, Blue bonds and scams based on spurious Carbon credit and Net Zero calculations are en vogue at the UNDP, and in line with the Colonial Club de Paris bondholders interests, which line up neatly with French President Macron’s UN Paris Climate Accords.

Green, blue and Sustainability bonds and stocks moreover are growth sectors across financial markets these days as the AI stock bubble ripens to busting point. Meanwhile, climate disaster insurance has become another financial growth sector the world over at this time.

No Anthropocene, we are in the Holocene- Experts Panel

The official proposal to name a new geological “Anthropocene” epoch was debunked in March 2024 by the experts’ panel of Geologists set up to review the evidence. This was after 15 years of debate and analysis of the data, evidence and arguments. Their findings were ratified by the International Union of Geologists.

The experts panel categorically rejected the official proposal to formalize the Anthropocene as Earth’s new geological epoch, and call an end to the current Holocene. We are still in the Holocene they ruled thus officially debunking the global-scale Climate Crisis claim.

This is NOT to deny the existence of real local mainly development-induced climate disasters. Rather it is to keep the big picture in perspective. The problem is with extrapolating local development disasters by untenable orders of magnitude to a global space-time scale with exaggerated corporate media coverage and hype with fear inducing images of real and staged natural disasters.

Local or regional development-induced environmental disasters do not and cannot add up to a global scale Epochal change in planetary geology to name a new ‘Anthropocene epoch’. This is where exaggerated corporate media coverage of real and staged climate disasters, the spreading of climate fear and anxiety morph into a Covid-19 scale psychological operation to enable gaslighting of the global commons with fear and disinformation, also to enable Climate Disaster Capitalism and hybrid forms of biological warfare and geoengineering.

Increasingly, real as well as geoengineered local ‘natural’ disasters have been used to sell the Anthropocene climate crisis narrative and mask weather warfare.

The claim that humans had altered the planet on a Global Scale had been critiqued by Anthropologists as both lacking in empirical evidence and “Euro-centric” in taking the Industrial Revolution as the start date for the Anthropocene. We are still in the Holocene and there is no Anthropocene. But this fact has been buried with a great deal of disinformation also at the UN Climate CoP meetings where climate Disinformation proliferates, enabling the weaponization and financialization of Mother Nature and Green and Blue Sustainability Bond Scams (that profit Vulture Funds like BlackRock that has been Greenwashing its investment portfolio), via the Climate Boiling narrative and the UN’s permanent ‘global polycrisis’.

Plausible Deniability: Climate crisis narrative masks Geoengineering to “Make the Economy Scream”

Ironically, the UN’s Anthropocene Climate Crisis narrative increasingly serves to mask weather warfare that contravenes the UN’s own ENMOD treaty and the biodiversity treaty in an era of Plausibly Deniable forms of hybrid warfare, which appear invisible non-kinetic – laser based for instance or cyberattacks on essential infrastructure also “To Make the Economy Scream”.

Geoengineering, such as Rainmaking with drones to cause landslides and bury whole villages as with Operation Popeye was Plausibly deniable and attributable to the failing Weather Gods. Meanwhile, Mother Nature has been turned into our enemy both weaponized and Financialized via Debt-for-Nature-Swaps, Blue, green sustainability bonds etc.

Hybrid warfare is designed to enable Plausible Deniability. However, Geopolitical Developments in India and the Indian Ocean region, particularly India’s pivot to Russia with President Putin’s State visit to New Delhi in the first week of December provide context to the timing of the monsoon related disasters reminiscent of Operation Popeye across geostrategic countries on the Indian Ocean maritime trade, energy and submarine date cable routes- Sri Lanka, Indonesia’s Sumatra, Malaysia on the Malacca Straits choke point and Thailand were all hit.

Co-incidentally, two days before Cyclone Ditwah arrived in Sri Lanka, a mysterious Ash cloud blew over New Delhi from a Volcanic Explosion in Ethiopia Nov 25, 2025 choking the air. The Hayli Gubbi volcano apparently blew in the Afar region, after 12,000 years sending an Ash Cloud targeting New Delhi, India!

The Cyclonic storm Diwah that hit on November 28 aborted the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Sri Lanka Navy in which Russian, Iranian, Indian, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Bangladeshi navy ships were participating scheduled for November 30. Instead search and rescue humanitarian operation got under way with massive support from India.

Co-incidentally, the US Special Forces also had intercepted a Chinese ship carrying dual use supplies to Iran off the coast of Sri Lanka in November. It is not clear if Sri Lanka was used for that operation.

The dramatic spate of “climate disasters” across the Indian Ocean world from --Ethiopia on the western shores to Indonesia in the East targeting Sri Lanka at the center of the IO, unfolded amid escalating geopolitical tension and tectonic shifts in the Indian Ocean -- as India prepared to host Russian President Putin in a state visit on December 4. This was despite US attempts to isolate him and threaten India for buying Russian Oil and Gas.

Were the storms reminiscent of Popeye a not so covert message that the ‘US owns the weather’ in the Indian Ocean as it pirates oil tankers in the Caribbean Seas escalating the Monroe Doctrine against Venezuela for regime change? Other hybrid attacks including the mysterious melt down of India’s largest airline Indigo Airlines when President Putin was in India. But these did not deter New Delhi’s pivot to its tried and tested old friend and Cold War ally, Russia.

During President Putin’s visit landmark agreements to expand and widen trade and defense corporation were signed. The Reciprocal Exchange of Logistics Agreement (RELOS) providing access each other’s ports and airports was also signed.

Geopolitical Commentators have pointed out that the Russian President’s state visit to India and its outcomes was nothing short of a quiet geopolitical earthquake -- signifying the consolidation of the Asian BRICS nations in an increasingly multipolar world, de-dollarising, drifting beyond the reach of a sinking Empire that seems to be throwing everything including the kitchen sink to stave off accerlerating decline.

No Mention of Geoengineering: Disaster Capitalism and UN CoP Summits

Few in the UN’s climate crisis Conference of the Parties (Cop) Summits ever mention the grave threat of geoengineering and weather warfare to life on the planet. Civil Society activists and NGOs have rather focussed on fossil fuel lobbies rather than the Military Business Industrial Research complex which includes Bio and germ warfare.

While powerful State Parties clearly seek to avoid mention of the military business industrial complex it is puzzling that the gravy train of NGOs and civil society climate activists never refer to ENMOD or the environmental pollution caused by the war machine – the tanks, bombs, mines, submarines, aircrafts, missiles, drones, aircraft carriers.

Indeed, it appears that the United Nations under the current Secretary General Antonio Guterrez had abdicated the UN’s primary responsibility of maintaining World Peace and respecting the Sovereignty of States enshrined in the UN Charter’s Article 2.7. Rather, the UN and its various Corporate-funded Agencies such as the WHO and FAO, seems to be drawing their its own propaganda about the world’s permanent “Polycrisis” and Climate Crisis Gaslighting, enabling Humanitarian Disaster Capitalism and the UNDP to market Green and Blue Bonds scams with, Debt for Nature Swaps or sustainability bonds, while the Electric Car companies and solar panel manufactures benefit from the Climate crisis narrative, while mining rare earth mineral apace to cause more climate crisis!

And there was little discussion about the rush to construct electricity and water intensive Big Data Centers around the world, particularly, in Geostrategic locations like Sri Lanka sitting on major Submarine Data Cable Routes, in order to keep the Global war machine and surveillance and monitoring systems humming alongside Elon Musk’s Starlink to provide and operate non-kinetic weapons systems for Over the Horizon (OTH), Full Spectrum Dominance (FSD) operations to neo-colonize Global South countries at just concluded hot air UN CoP in Belem Brazil which featured many colourful and deluded Gen-Z Social media protestors turned environmental NGO activists who take their lead from Greta Thunberg.

Few of the UN’s Climate CoP regulars seemed to have ever heard of ENMOD or weather warfare at a time when the damage cause by wars and the Military Industrial Complex to the earth far exceeds any other industrial source of pollution to the planet.

The recent UN CoP Summit in Belem was silent on Geoengineering and weather warfare and the environmental impacts of the US military business industrial complex/ war machine which hit a trillion-dollar budget this year. The US is the largest military business industrial research and development complex by far.

Preparations for Cyclone Ditwah: Geoengineering climate disasters

While technologies such as cloud seeding date to the 1960s, generating earthquakes and tsunamis with nuclear and hydrogen bomb explosions and experiments were done by the United States in the Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands in the late 1940s and 1950s. The Bikini Atoll remains contaminated and uninhabitable.

In 2004 the Indian Ocean was hit by an earthquake and tsunami that traveled from East to West. Triggered on the coast of Sumatra, particularly Ache Province, the wave travelled all the way to Africa and the coast of Tanzania and Mosambique. Most affected were Aceh Province Indonesia and Sri Lanka were over 100,000 people were killed, as well as, Thailand, Malaysia and India.

2004 was when the US CIA started talking up a perceived ‘threat’ posed by the Chinese “String of Pearls” harbors of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for global connectivity. Sri Lanka’s Chinese built Hambantota port was hit hard by the Christmas/ Boxing Day tsunami when the Western world was on holiday and disaster warning systems poorly manned.

Remarkably, the recent storms at the onset of the northeast monsoon season this November 2025 also hit the same countries that or on Indian Ocean trade, energy and Submarine Data Cable Route CHOKE POINTS. Indonesia and Malaysia are where the famous Malacca Straits Indian Ocean choke point is.

For good measure another Tsunami warning was also issued to muddy the waters in Indonesia’s Sumatra as November 2025 storms hit. Only this time rather than the coastal belt it was the hill and inland towns that were hit by rainmaking floods and mud slides as with Operation Popeye back in Vietnam.

Remarkably, after the 2004 Asia tsunami the US moved to set up the QUAD with India, Japan and Australia to provide ‘humanitarian aid’ in disaster situations and target China and its ‘String of Pearl’ Harbours in the Indian Ocean.

The US Ambassador Julie Chung had clearly done meticulous the preparations to land US boots on the ground in a county that had weathered many storms in order to maintain Non-Alignment and deny the US military bases in the coveted Trincomalee Harbour. With the twister storms Ditwar the US inched closer to Trincomalee.

Less than two weeks before Ditwah, on November 14, the US embassy in Colombo announced that, the United States and Sri Lanka had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalizing and deepening a defense partnership between the Montana National Guard and the Sri Lanka Armed Forces under the Department of War’s State Partnership Program (SPP).

U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung highlighted the significance of the new chapter in U.S.–Sri Lanka defense cooperation with great prescience: “From wildfire response and flood relief in Montana to peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts overseas, the Montana National Guard has a proud record of service and professionalism. This partnership with Sri Lanka, reaffirmed through today’s MOU, strengthens our shared resolve for a secure Indo-Pacific—building trust, readiness, and lasting peace through partnership.” 

Thus the stage was set for the magical appearance on November 28 of the Twister storms Ditwah to cause maximum damage to the economy-- this time in the Central Hills. A week later US boots were on the ground with 2 Giant C-103 Hercules planes occupying the Sri Lanka Air Force base in Katunaiyake to provide “humanitarian aid”.

Rainmaking in the hills of SL tagetting food security, energy and transport infrastructure

Storm Ditwah’s Rain Making floods and landslides which killed nearly 700 people targeted the picturesque Central Hill country and agricultural heartlands of Sri Lanka. National food security, energy and transport infrastructure were singled out. In a strange way the damage complimented the destruction of coastal communities that were caused by the Christmas/ Boxing day Asia Tsunami Disaster of 2004 that hit the Coastal areas of Sri Lanka killing over 30,000 people.

Designing, staging, compounding and cascading Disasters with ‘double taps” and enhancing opportunities for Disaster Capitalism is part of the climate warfare research, design and funding cycle. As the Environmental Observatory notes in an article titled “From ENMOD to geoengineering: the environment as a weapon of war:” The weaponisation of water infrastructure provides one such example. Dams, pumping stations, treatment plants or pipelines may become the object of deliberate attack in order to subdue the civilian population. Alternatively, they may be captured and actively weaponised against an opponent. This weaponisation of water can take many forms, from diverting or disrupting water routes to flooding large areas of land, and impact both enemy forces and civilians alike. Environmental warfare of this sort has been witnessed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Israel’s intentional targeting of water pipelines and sewage systems in Gaza..

The IMF had previously targeted Sri Lankas electricity, energy and public transport system, particularly the railways for privatization also under the Millennium Challenge Corporation compact that was rejected in 2019.

Unlike Gaza which is also subject to rainmaking and floods at this time but deprived of aid by Israel, it was clear that Sri Lanka was again a donor darling as the Western allies rushed to deliver aid as the story broke that geopolitics and geoengineering were behind the strange monsoon Tornado twisters that uprooted trees and infrastructure in the hill county in an unprecedented fashion.

Of course at the local level, the county caught in a US dollar Eurobond debt trap and desperate to earn US dollars has de-forested the hills in a rush to build tourism resorts, projects and theme parks and open new lands willy nilly for agribusiness agriculture – development disasters waiting to happen which are then glossed as being caused by the faux Anthropocene Climate Crisis”. Over tourism and over exploitation of land is increasingly an issue as the Eurobond debt trapped county exploits Mother Nature to earn exorbitantly privileged dollars from depreciating local rupees. The conversion of multiple forms and strands of Disaster Capitalism is evident with the Financialization of nature for debt for nature Swaps, and green, blue, sustainability bonds and scams.

Holiday Disasters when folks are Distracted

Do disasters tend to happen in Asia around Christian Holidays when folks are distracted or instructed to ‘stand down’? The ISIS claimed Easter Sunday attacks of 2019 occurred when folks are on holiday and hence not paying attention to what’s going on, such as the Christmas/Boxing day Indian Ocean earthquake and Tsunami of 2004. Likewise, the 2025 storm Ditwah in Sri Lanka and other Rainmaking American twister disasters in Aceh Sumatra, Thailand and Malaysia, happened during the November 2025, the Thanks Giving Holiday in the United States.

It is also remarkable that the greater the instruments, technologies and institutions for measuring and monitoring disasters such as the National Building authority (NBRO), the higher the incidence and depth of disasters, and concomitant failure to ensure damage control which begs the question of the purpose of setting up such institutions. Dual use technologies seem particularly useful for Creative destruction and disaster capitalism?!

60 US air force officers purportedly for humanitarian aid arrived in Sri Lanka one week after the disaster when much of the cleanup was already completed on C-130 Hercules aircraft that flies into storms, including the specialized WC-130 weather reconnaissance variant, have been used for cloud seeding operations in the past. The aircraft is valued for its durability, large cargo capacity, and ability to operate in diverse conditions.

The current faux-Leftist National Peoples’ Power (NPP) regime’s recent agreements with the United States had enabled the US to land in Sri Lanka military bases and bring troops in an unprecedented manner into the geostrategic Indian Ocean Island nation.

Cold War regional history may be repeating itself as India pivots to its time-tested friend and partner, Russia’s, while Sri Lanka is increasingly drawn into the US security orbit with military agreement. Back in the 1980s a similar scenario led to the internal Cold War proxy war ‘ethnic conflict’ between the Sinhala and Tamil linguistic communities that had coexisted for centuries and inter-married for generations: India a close friend of Russia helped set up, armed and trained Tamil Liberation Tigers (LTTE) to fight a proxy war on the US-backed regime of J.R. Jayawardena being fearful of US military bases being set up in the South. After the Pogrom and stated riots of July 1983, British MI-6 and the Israeli Mossad set up training bases and camps for the Special Task Forces (STF) later accused of war crimes. It appears that the STF still remains partially controlled by external forces as events around the Aragalaya operation of 2022 indicate.

ENMOD Treaty and Reparations for Victims of Geoengineering and Climate Crimes

At this time of global political economic power-shift and escalating Hybrid (plausibly deniable) warfare, the ENMOD treaty becomes increasingly relevant and may be used to seek reparations for Climate Crimes by victims of Weather Warfare in South and Southeast Asian countries targeted for hybrid economic warfare with Weather manipulation technologies.

So too the islands in the Caribbean islands which have been incessantly targeted with staged ‘climate disasters”, the most recent being Hurricane Melissa. Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico are islands used for Geoengineering experiments and weather warfare targeting energy and transport infrastructure and food security for decades with floods, storms, earthquakes.

Indeed, island nations on major sea lanes tend to be particularly vulnerable to hostile geoengineering: The Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean whose inhabitants were evicted to to set up the UK-US Diego Garcia military base to the Marshal Islands (Bikini Atol), to Sumatra, Bali and other islands in Indonesia, islands in the Philippines, Japan, Sri Lanka and the list goes on.

There is moreover anecdotal evidence and a pattern of Global South countries and regions with concentrations of US military bases or installations being more affected by geo-engineered or staged climate disasters (Philippines, Japan)!

It is time that victim groups and countries affected by weather warfare, particularly islands, collect data and evidence on these staged climate disasters to mount cases and claims against States that perpetrate climate crimes. After all, the ENMOD Convention bans weather warfare, which is the use of weather modification techniques for the purposes of inducing damage or destruction. The Convention on Biological Diversity of 2010 would also ban some forms of weather modification or geoengineering.[3]

Finally, is it an accident that in an era of Unnatural Natural Disaster such as so-called Cyclone Ditwah that recently hit US dollar Eurobond-debt trapped in Sri Lanka, few environmental activists and NGOs on the well-funded green gravy train know of the history of Geoengineering and weather warfare by the United States in Southeast Asia or the ENMOD treaty. Why do the environmental activists not seek closure of environment polluting US military bases in Asia and the Indian ocean and call out the US Military business industrial complex /War machine at the UN CoP Summits given that the War Machine is the principle source of environmental pollution and a far bigger threat than fossil fuels to life of the planet?

As Fabien Deruelle noted in a 2023 article in the Journal of Geography, Environment and Earth Science International “Natural Disasters Are Not All Natural, and the use of military climatic and environmental modification technologies appears to be the most relevant explanation to understand the increase in numbers and intensities of natural disasters over the last 20 years as weather is deployed as a “force multiplier” by those who seek to “Own the weather”.

Below is an analysis of the ENMOD Convention

Dr. Abhishek Gandhi Advocate, Delhi High Court Home Our Team Contact

July 23, 2025 9:34 AM

A Treaty Worth Strengthening Introduction: War, Weather, and the ENMOD Convention

In the modern world, where technology has advanced to unprecedented levels, humanity now faces an eerie question: Can nature itself be turned into a weapon? The answer came into alarming focus during the Cold War era, prompting the international community to act. Thus was born the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, commonly known as the ENMOD Convention (1977).

Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1976, and opened for signature in Geneva on May 18, 1977, the ENMOD Convention came into force on October 5, 1978. This landmark treaty is a cornerstone of international humanitarian law, uniquely designed to address a very modern threat — the militarization of natural processes like weather, oceans, and the earth’s ecosystems. In this article, we will delve into the history, significance, structure, criticisms, and continuing relevance of the ENMOD Convention, while answering frequently asked questions for legal and academic clarity.

Historical Background of the ENMOD Convention

The seeds of ENMOD were sown during the Vietnam War, where allegations surfaced about the United States’ use of cloud-seeding operations (Project Popeye) to prolong the monsoon season over enemy supply routes. This use of environmental modification for military objectives raised serious ethical, legal, and environmental concerns. With growing public outcry and a rising awareness of the destructive potential of manipulating nature, the United Nations began considering legal instruments to restrict such activities. The Cold War’s geopolitical tension, paired with the potential for climate modification to escalate conflicts, pushed nations to agree on a preventive legal mechanism — thus giving rise to the ENMOD Convention. What is the ENMOD Convention?

The ENMOD Convention (1977) is an international treaty prohibiting the use of environmental modification techniques for military or hostile purposes. It obligates state parties not to engage in any environmental manipulation — such as changing weather patterns, ocean currents, or geological structures — to cause destruction, damage, or injury to another State Party. The Convention acknowledges the peaceful use of environmental techniques, such as for agriculture or climate adaptation, but draws a clear line when such use turns hostile or poses risks to human or environmental safety.

Core Objectives of the ENMOD Convention To Prevent the Weaponization of Nature: By banning hostile uses of weather modification or environmental engineering. To Promote International Peace and Security: Through the limitation of emerging environmental warfare techniques. To Establish Legal Norms: Around the definition and use of environmental modification in armed conflict. To Create Accountability: Among nations for actions that could result in large-scale environmental destruction.

Key Definitions and Provisions

Environmental Modification Techniques (Article II) Defined as: “Any technique for changing — through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes — the dynamics, composition or structure of the Earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, or of outer space.” Examples may include: Induced earthquakes or tsunamis Artificial weather control (e.g., excessive rainfall or drought) Altering ocean currents Triggering volcanic eruptions Changes in ionospheric conditions 2. Prohibition Clause (Article I) The heart of the Convention, this article prohibits the military or hostile use of such techniques that have: Widespread Long-lasting, or Severe effects on the environment or populations. 3. Permissibility of Peaceful Use (Preamble & Article III) The Convention allows for peaceful applications of environmental modification — such as combating desertification or controlling pests — so long as these do not result in harmful consequences to other states. 4. Consultations and Complaints (Article V & VI) States can consult each other on issues arising from the Convention. Complaints can be lodged with the United Nations Security Council, which is empowered to investigate violations. ENMOD vs. Other Environmental & Warfare Treaties

The ENMOD Convention stands at a unique intersection between environmental protection and international humanitarian law (IHL). Treaty Purpose Difference from ENMOD Geneva Conventions Regulate conduct of war Does not specifically cover environmental modification Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Bans chemical weapons

ENMOD targets techniques rather than substances. Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Prohibits biological weapons ENMOD is broader in scope, including geophysical tools.ENMOD deals with deliberate manipulation for harm Compliance and Monitoring Challenges While the ENMOD Convention sets forth a moral and legal framework, its enforcement mechanisms are limited. There is no dedicated body to verify or monitor compliance, unlike the Chemical Weapons Convention which has the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons).

Dual Use Technologies

Furthermore: Verification is difficult, especially with dual-use technologies (e.g., cloud seeding can be both peaceful and hostile). Evidence gathering is complex, as attribution for natural disasters remains scientifically and politically challenging.

States Parties and Global Participation

As of now, 78 countries are parties to the ENMOD Convention, including major powers like the United States, Russia, China, and India. However, some countries have neither signed nor ratified the treaty, limiting its universal applicability. It remains one of the lesser-known but crucial disarmament instruments in the international legal framework. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Q1.

Is the ENMOD Convention still relevant in 2025? Absolutely. With growing capabilities in geoengineering and climate intervention, the line between peaceful and hostile use of environmental modification is becoming increasingly thin. ENMOD provides a legal and ethical framework for countries to restrain weaponized climate action. Q2. Does ENMOD apply to non-state actors like terrorist organizations? The Convention is a state-level treaty, so it does not directly bind non-state actors. However, states are expected to prevent their territory or resources from being used by such actors in violation of ENMOD norms. Q3. Can ENMOD be invoked in climate change litigation? Not directly. The ENMOD Convention deals with deliberate hostile actions, whereas climate change is a result of industrial emissions and negligence but has relevance for new patterns of Hybrid Warfare. However, the ethical principles may be cited to highlight state responsibility in international environmental discourse. Q4. Are there any real-life cases where ENMOD has been violated? There is no officially confirmed violation, although the historical example of Project Popeye is widely seen as the trigger for ENMOD’s creation.

Modern technologies are kept in check more by deterrence and political consequences than by formal ENMOD sanctions. Q5. How does ENMOD relate to space and extraterrestrial domains? Interestingly, ENMOD covers modifications of the outer space environment as well. This anticipates futuristic threats involving space-based weapons that could influence earth systems. Q6. What is the punishment for violating the ENMOD Convention? There is no specified punitive mechanism in the Convention itself. Violations can be referred to the United Nations Security Council, which may impose sanctions or take other measures under international law. Q7. Can climate engineering or solar geoengineering violate ENMOD? If such techniques are used with hostile intent or cause widespread, long-lasting, or severe damage, then yes — they could potentially violate ENMOD provisions. Q8. Who monitors global compliance with ENMOD? There is no dedicated treaty body. However, state parties can hold consultations, and complaints can be brought before the UN Security Council. In practice, compliance is largely voluntary and diplomatic. Modern Challenges and the Future of ENMOD With the rise of: Geoengineering proposals to combat climate change, Military interest in weather-control research, and Unpredictable natural disasters where attribution is difficult, …

ENMOD Convention faces new interpretive challenges.

Artificial rain induction, carbon capture, or stratospheric aerosol injection could be considered double-edged swords. If used with peaceful intent, they are permissible. However, if misused in war or cross-border disputes, they could come under ENMOD scrutiny. Updating ENMOD to include clearer mechanisms for: Verification Transparency Accountability …is the need of the hour, especially as climate security becomes a pillar of international peace.

Conclusion: A Treaty Worth Strengthening

The ENMOD Convention (1977) may not be the most famous international treaty, but its purpose is profoundly relevant in today’s world. It reminds us that even the clouds and the oceans must not be weaponized, and that science, for all its power, must remain within the bounds of ethics and legality. For advocates, environmentalists, policymakers, and the global citizenry, ENMOD stands as a cautionary shield, warning against the misuse of our planet’s very fabric. In an age where environmental security is national security, this often-overlooked treaty is not just a relic of Cold War anxiety — it is a living document of global responsibility.

https://advocategandhi.com/the-enmod-convention-1977-safeguarding-the-planet-from-environmental-warfare/

References

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/nov/28/weaponized-weather-emerges-new-hybrid-warfare-tool/

https://owlcation.com/humanities/hidden-history-of-the-united-states-of-america-when-weather-was-a-weapon

https://owlcation.com/humanities/hidden-history-of-the-united-states-of-america-when-weather-was-a-weapon

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/03/archives/rainmaking-is-used-as-weapon-by-us-cloudseeding-in-indochina-is.html

https://owlcation.com/humanities/hidden-history-of-the-united-states-of-america-when-weather-was-a-weapon

https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/13/pilot-union-urges-faa-to-reject-rainmakers-drone-cloud-seeding-plan/

https://ia801605.us.archive.org/35/items/WeatherAsAForceMultiplier/WeatherAsAForceMultiplier.pdf

https://island.lk/foreign-warships-arrive-in-sri-lanka-to-take-part-in-international-fleet-review-2025/

https://island.lk/us-naval-experts-in-lanka-to-help-broaden-hydrographic-mapping-skills/

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/making-it-rain/

https://island.lk/foreign-warships-arrive-in-sri-lanka-to-take-part-in-international-fleet-review-2025/

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-forces-raid-ship-seize-cargo-headed-to-iran-from-china-35a1e2ac

https://www.history.com/articles/nuclear-bomb-tests-bikini-atoll-facts

https://ceobs.org/from-enmod-to-geoengineering-the-environment-as-a-weapon-of-war/

Cloud seeding over Kuching skies in a C-130 Hercules