Recently the AFP reported that China was experimenting on dispersing clouds to prevent rain during Olympic events. Conversely, officials claim that China has already set up an extensive system that may be able to make it rain during the games if needed. Now wouldn't this kind of thing be useful in the winter. Especially after the winter we've just had on the east coast with very little in terms of actual snow fall. A little rain would also be useful in fighting the forest fires that recently ravaged the western United States. On the other hand, this could also turn out to be just another modality to spread disease.
It was August 10th, 2007 when the AFP reported that chinese scientists were "conducting high-altitude tests to eliminate clouds and stop rain [from] spoiling next year's Beijing Olympics."1 This was achieved by dispersing silver iodide and Diatomite into the atmosphere. These two compounds are thought to prevent moisture from forming into rain drops. Silver iodide is used as an antiseptic and diatomite is a naturally occurring, soft, chalk-like sedimentary rock so conventional wisdom would lead us to believe that the process is safe. At the very least, spectators at the 2008 Olympic games have little chance of catching some form of an infection while chinese scientist are pumping the air full of antiseptic. The idea of controlling the weather with chemicals does, however, raise a small red flag in my mind, although maybe I just watch too many James Bond type movie with over the top, megalomaniacal villains.
The one thing that I find most interesting about this is that silver iodide, having a crystaline structure similar to ice, can induce freezing to the moisture in clouds when disperssed in the air (in China they use old anti-aircraft guns to shoot cans of the compounds into the sky). The first idea that came to my mind when I learned of this was that this seems like a feasible way of making it snow. I suspect that if done properly, this could also be much more effective than arrays of snow cannons on your favourite hill, or even better, combine the two.
Apparently this technique called cloud seeding is not new which makes me wonder why I hadn't heard of it until now. Had I known about this, I would have focused my energies last year on cloud seeding the skies over Vermont and western Quebec instead of wearing my pyjamas inside out and flushing ice cubes down the toilet (which is commonly thought to be a fundamental part of the snow dance). Perhaps the researchers who study this know something that we don't such as: a) cloud seeding is prohibitively expensive or b) cloud seeding is a potential health hazard. In the first case, I feel bad for the people of China who will have to foot the bill for this when the Olympics come around in 2008. In the second case I feel bad for the people of China who will be exposed to cloud seeding and the side effects of this technique, probably even after the Olympics are done and gone. In either case, it looks like I feel bad for the chinese. In the meantime, I'll be accepting donations to the "seed the clouds to shred the gnar" fund in an attempt to raise money, kind of like a snow insurrance policy, to seed the skies if we are again in dire need of snow this winter. I give you my assurances that this fund will be used only in cases of emergencies, namely on days where I'm snowboarding and can't find any freshies. The governing body of this fund will not be elected for obvious reasons.
So next winter when your hitting the slopes and you notice a little precipitation starting to fall. Look up in the sky, you may be getting a random dose of anti-septic for a few fresh lines. One way or the other, the important thing here is to...
Keep shreddin' the GNAR!
References
- China working to make clouds vanish during Olympics, http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070810/sc_afp/oly2008chnweathercloud_070810064642, Fri Aug 10, 2:54 AM ET.
