As climate change and the resulting extreme weather intensify, interest in weather modification is growing around the world. In Japan, under Goal 8 of the Moonshot Research and Development Program led by the Cabinet Office / JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency), a research and development program for weather control has been launched to mitigate extreme wind and water damage. This project aims to use advanced technologies such as artificial rainfall, offshore wind turbines, and offshore curtains to intervene in weather conditions and suppress the frequency and intensity of heavy rain and typhoons. While such technologies could help reduce damage from increasingly severe heavy rains and typhoons, they also carry the potential to fundamentally alter the relationship between humans and weather that humanity has built over time.

An article recently published in the journal “npj Climate Action” proposes a new concept called “Weather Commons” as a democratic, bottom-up approach centered on local communities, setting it apart from the top-down, technocratic approach to weather control. Here, the term “Commons” emphasizes the idea that weather “belongs to everyone”, drawing upon research on common resources management and commoning. The authors define “Weather Commons” as “social-ecological systems that enable collective stewardship of weather-related resources and processes, by promoting cooperation and trust between actors across scales.” The concept of Weather Commons is expected to help shed light on the rich relationship between humans and weather, critically examine the technocratic approach to weather control and its dominant position, and serve as a powerful corrective to excessive reliance on technological fixes.

The authors emphasize the need to increase society's ability to embrace the weather in parallel with technological development of weather control. The framework of the Weather Commons seeks to provide both a starting point and platform for a broad civic dialogue to decide if, when, and how we should engage in weather control.