smokehard

I first heard about cloud seeding yesterday when I read:

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian air force planes dropped a 25-kg (55-lb) sack of cement on a suburban Moscow home last week while seeding clouds to prevent rain from spoiling a holiday, Russian media said on Tuesday….

Ahead of major public holidays the Russian Air Force often dispatches up to 12 cargo planes carrying loads of silver iodide, liquid nitrogen and cement powder to seed clouds above Moscow and empty the skies of moisture. (Reuters)

According to the above reuters article, it was the “first hiccup in 20 years.”

Wow! Artificial rain with a near pefect safety record! Have all of our drought problems been solved? It can’t be true! You are correct, they aren’t. In fact, artificial rain caused by seeding clouds may be creating even bigger problems.

’The chemicals used in the production of artificial rain could affect climatic patterns, ecosystem, water sources and the soil,’ said Dr Victoria Ngomuo, Community Water and Demographer at the Water Resources Institute (WRI) in Dar es Salaam…

Excessive use of the chemicals, Dr Ngomuo warned, would affect biodiversity and make the soil unproductive, besides being a water pollutant…

She said if artificial rain were a viable idea, countries that are richer than Tanzania would be using it to solve their water problems. (IPPMedia)

Ok, perhaps she meant to say ‘advanced first world countries’ because both Russia and China are richer than Tanzania, and apparently they Ok, apparently even the richest country in the world sprinkles silver iodide, liquid nitrogen, and cement powder (hereby collectively known as “sky meth”) into the atmosphere to solve water problems and make the skies on ’special’ holidays clear, except they call it “weather modification” and its intended to make clouds fluffier.

Bomar’s agency is involved in weather modification because it has a statutory mandate to administer the Weather Modification Act, which was passed by the Texas Legislature in 1967. The act charges the agency with promoting research and development of cloud-seeding technology and with regulating the use of cloud-seeding through a licensing and permitting process. (link)

So, with the Olympics coming up, will China sprinkle the skies over Beijing with sky meth, and are the trace particles from sky meth dangerous? I picture sky meth being something like asbestos. A really wonderful and great idea that years later becomes responsible for all sorts of ugly cancers. Well to answer one of my questions, China is DEFINATELY going to sprinkle sky meth before the Olympics, and they what it takes to do it.

According to Wang Guanghe, director of the Weather Modification Department under the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, each of China’s more than 30 provinces and province-level municipalities today boast a weather-modification base, employing more than 32,000 people, 7,100 anti-aircraft guns, 4,991 special rocket launchers and 30-odd aircraft across the country.

Zhang Qiang, the top weather-modification bureaucrat in Beijing, said her office has been conducting experiments in cloud-busting for the past two years in preparation for the Games’ opening ceremony on August 8, 2008.

She said that according to past meteorological data, there is a 50% chance of drizzle on that day. To ensure blue skies, the Beijing Weather Modification Office is busy researching the effects of various chemical activators on different sizes of cloud formations at different altitudes. The aim is to catch pregnant clouds early and induce rainfall ahead of the big day so that during the opening ceremony the sky is cloud-free.

Wang said similar efforts in the past have already helped to create good weather for a number of international events held in China, including the 1999 World Horti-Expo in Yunnan and the 1993 East Asian Games in Shanghai. (Asia Times)

Olympics aside, check this info out. I mean HOLY SHITBALLS!!!!!!!!!!!

From March 1967 until July 1972, the US military Operation Popeye cloud seeded silver iodide to extend the monsoon season over North Vietnam, specifically the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The operation resulted in the targeted areas seeing an extension of the monsoon period an average of 30 to 45 days.[2] The 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron carried out the operation to “make mud, not war.” [3]

In 1969 at the Woodstock Festival, various people claimed to have witnessed clouds being seeded by the US military. This was said to be the cause of the rain which lasted throughout most of the festival. This remains one of the many conspiracy theories put forth by members of the hippy movement at the time. (Link)

I don’t know about the Woodstock claim, but if “operation popeye” did what it was intended to do, why isn’t this technology being used to make it rain more around desert areas affected by drought and water shortages? I mean with their vast billions in oil wealth, why isn’t Saudi Arabia setting up a force like China’s in order to combat these problems?

Perhaps its because the problem is too big, and that a bunch of sky meth just isn’t going to solve these problems. I have a feeling sprinkling this shit into the air is going to have sideeffects and governments who use it, will end up regretting they did.