I come from a long line of farmers and ranchers, and I thought I'd heard of just about every way to inspire rain: Let's see, we have our praying, our rain dancing, and the always-useful "if I water the garden this evening it's sure to rain tonight." But in China, cloud seeding -- the practice of literally creating clouds, with or without rain -- is a booming business. And in the strange world-that-is-China, it's the government who's selling.The odd thing is who the buyers are. When the "Office of Artificial Weather Inducement" was created, it was meant as a public service -- to wash away pollution, for example or (even stranger) to create clouds in the day or days before an event (it's planned for the 2008 Summer Olympics) to increase the likelihood the event itself will be clean, bright and sunny.
But now private individuals and businesses can buy clouds. Want a beautiful day for your wedding? It'll cost you somewhere between US$700 and $3,500.
As for the farmers? They don't have nearly enough money to buy clouds for their own purposes, and are left as the unintended victims of cloud seeding. If the rain falls mainly on Beijing -- there won't be any left for the rice.
And that's just not cool.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-12-2007 @ 10:48PM
LORENA said...
clouds neat. but it should be given to farmers who supply food for our needs.free
6-11-2007 @ 11:17AM
chubby bear said...
why play God??? This is just selfish BS!!!!=/
6-11-2007 @ 11:24AM
Danielle said...
It's just plain scary to me. Buying clouds making clouds. God only knows whats next.
Danielle
6-11-2007 @ 11:38AM
LovelyCrys2 said...
It is not playing God,it is messing with mother nature. Although this could be used in a positive way. Why not help countries that is in need of rain due to the outcome of the depletion of the ozone.
6-11-2007 @ 11:50AM
Carla Lockwood said...
China, along with India and other Asian countries, is creating huge amounts of uncontrolled carbon dioxide emissions. Now they want to be able to wash it away so they can have sunny days? Where does the pollution go? Into the planetary water system to hasten the decline of water quality worldwide. Better by far to use their energy to control emissions than to move clouds around to wash their pollutants into the ocean more quickly.
6-11-2007 @ 1:21PM
jao said...
cloud seeding is a common practice and has been used the world over - even the United States...as far as selling clouds, well this is along the lines of selling stars...there a scam here a scam and if your dumb enough to fall for it then you deserve to be among those fleeced...seriously go do a rain dance
6-11-2007 @ 11:55AM
Debbie Vitale-Kane said...
This technology has been used by government for over 50 years. Check out HAARP!
6-11-2007 @ 11:56AM
Ryan Hunsberger said...
This isn't worht writing about, as schience isn't to the point of controlling weather that specifically. It is "Playing God" or "Messing with Mother Nature", as we don't have that kind of power. We just like to think we do.
6-11-2007 @ 12:00PM
eram8t8 said...
The U.S.A. has imployed cloud seeding since the 1950"s. In fact at that time 10% of U.S. agriculture depended on it. Also during the Vietnam War the U. S. employed weather modification to deter the enemy along the infamous Ho Chu Mingh Trail. Once congress and the united nations found out, a treaty was drawn up to deter "hostile Weather modifications" tactics. It is called the Enmod Treaty and over 70 countries were signatories. the U.S. being one of them. Do a google search of "weather modification" and you will be very surprised over how much we supernations do in regard to manipulating the weather. this is not science fiction, but pure science.
A plane flys over clouds and drops some sort of chemical to make it produce rain.....
6-11-2007 @ 3:13PM
cindy said...
Actually we DO have that kind of power but as usual human greed preavils. If every one of us cared enough to try and put everyone else on our list of things we give a crap about it WOULD change the world!
6-12-2007 @ 7:49AM
eram8t8 said...
i'm with debbie...check out haarp.edu and you will find information about low frequency capabilities, but it will sound very benign, but if you go onto haarp.net, you will be told the true nature of the instillation in Alaska. It is run by the University, and paid for by The U.S.Air Force, the Navy (google naval weapons site). It is a no fly zone......you will be amazed what info i found through the websites of our various armed services and capabilities that the normal U.S. citizen has no clue about. These are not conspiracy theory sites, but actual govt. sites....and yes, it is scary and creepy what we are capable of doing.
6-11-2007 @ 12:15PM
Kimberly said...
My problem with seeding clouds is that they use silver iodine to do it. On the whole, it's not dangerous, but it does have a health rating of 2 (on a number scale of 0 to 4, 0 being nothing and 4 being really dangerous).
A two in health translates to this: Intense or continued but not chronic exposure could cause temporary incapacitation or possible residual injury.
Which means, it's bad for you to get a large dose of it or to be exposed to it on a regular basis, but it's not going to kill you. And if you get yourself out of the area where it is, or stop working with it, you'll recover.
So, I worry, that if we get into the habit of seeding these clouds, that not only will we be changing the weather patterns of our planet, but we will also be exposing people to this chemical, on a regular basis. Which, as stated above, is bad - not terrible, but I wouldn't want this stuff to be showing up in everything.
And yes, the farmers have a good concern. Rice needs a lot of water. The fields are flooded and end up as giant lakes about a foot or two deep.
Also, to the poster who said let's put rain where there isn't any.. it means you take rain from somewhere else. This is bad. There's a reason a desert is a desert, because the rain rained somewhere else. Not the ozone.. The ozone is pretty much fine at this point. We've discovered it's suppose to have a hole and that the hole has varied greatly over time. Yes, we did damage, but it's well on the path to recovery. Drought is the norm in some areas. If you're going to play with weather, even to give people water, you might as well play with the weather in all cases.
I will say this, you're thinking with your heart, that you see people suffering and you want to help. It's not bad to want to help... it's bad that you want to help by controlling the weather. You're thinking with your heart, not with your head, that there are consequences for every action. If you make it rain in one place, you will take rain away from the other.
6-11-2007 @ 12:37PM
Vivi said...
Everyone has an idea on everything! But all these people sit around and just expound..........they do nothing to better things. They can't even pick up their own trash and dispose of it properly.
6-11-2007 @ 12:48PM
Aggie said...
OK, so China is into making clouds. How are they going to, "recall" them? With all the junk they make, over 90% of all recalls come from China. We are still dealing with their so called,"Pet Food" and the crap they sold us!
6-11-2007 @ 1:32PM
jesus lover said...
No one can play God. God is God. There is no other. Its ridiculous to even say such a thing. Shame on you, who ever wrote the title of this article. What is this world coming to?
6-11-2007 @ 1:45PM
mondo said...
who cares what China does. If they want to screw themselves out of rain to their no. 1 food crop, let them. Then maybe we could begin to narrow the trade defecit by selling them foodstuffs.
6-11-2007 @ 1:46PM
kerry said...
the US did this, and it created hurricane Agnes. I can't even imagine what the Chinese are going to do with this technology.
6-11-2007 @ 10:32PM
Shoob said...
This is a likely metaphor for what the Chinese Communist Party has been doing since it began. Not only creating clouds to cover up its crimes and deception - but selling them! The Party has murdered 80 millions Chinese citizens in its miserable 56 year history. Now they're trying to have the Olympics while there is a literal holocaust in that country. Remember Nazi Germany doing the exact same thing. The Party is torturing to death any and all 'dissidents', whether they be political, religious or otherwise 'enemies' of the state. They are even removing body organs from LIVING people to sell at exorbitant prices on the international market. This is the worst criminal regime in the history of the world.
6-15-2007 @ 11:41PM
Nidhi said...
This rain making also happens a lot in India too. Apart from other environmental issues, I am not really sure what the effect is on the neighbhors who cannot afford this .. Will this drain all the water/humidity out of surrounding areas??
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