Engineering the Sky

Research Focus

We explore the ontological conflict between modern atmospheric engineering and Indigenous relational cosmologies. While technoscientific imaginaries treat the sky as manageable infrastructure or a resource to be optimized through intervention, various Indigenous traditions view weather as a living, agentive relative embedded in ethical and moral obligations. We highlight how practices like cloud seeding and geoengineering reflect a logic of human mastery that contrasts sharply with Indigenous worldviews grounded in reciprocity and ancestral connection. By examining diverse perspectives from Australia, the Americas, Africa, and the Pacific, we argue that climatic instability is often interpreted by Indigenous peoples as a relational disturbance rather than a mere technical failure. We suggest that addressing environmental crises requires a shift from instrumental control toward a relational ethics that recognizes the atmosphere as a communicative and vital participant in the web of life.