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In China, some 560,000 manipulations of the weather have been conducted since 2002

China Leads the World in Weather Modification



Not content to push the edge in cloning, architecture and geological engineering, China’s also leaving the rest of the world behind when it comes to controlling the weather. Chinese officials say cloud seeding has helped to relieve severe droughts and water shortages in cities. In Shanghai, officials are considering the measure to cool the daytime temperature, easing demand for electricity, reports Brandon Keim. (1)
The Beijing Weather Modification Office is just one part of the National Weather Modification Office that manipulates the weather across the whole of the country. China’s weather engineering program is the largest in the world—1,500 weather modification experts, in charge of thirty aircraft and their crews, as well as 40,000 part-time workers—farmers in the main—who are there to man the 7,000 anti-aircraft guns and 5,000 rocket launchers to shell the clouds. (2) Weather modification is the act of intentionally manipulating or altering the weather. The most common form of weather manipulation is cloud seeding to increase rain or snow, usually for the purpose of increasing the local water supply.

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Weather modification can also have the goal of preventing damaging weather, such as hail or hurricanes, for occurring; or of provoking damaging weather against an enemy rival. However, weather modification in warfare has been banned by the United Nations. (3) In China, some 560,000 manipulations of the weather have been conducted since 2002 using aircraft, rockets and projectiles carrying dry ice or silver iodide particles to stimulate rainfall, resulting with release of 490 billion tons of rain and saving about $10.4 billion in economic losses, the China Meteorological Association has reported. (4) For the 2008 Olympics, China had 30 airplanes, 4,000 rocket launchers, and 7,000 anti-aircraft guns to stop rain. Each system would shoot various chemicals into any threatening clouds to shrink rain drops before they reached the stadium. In February 2009, China also blasted iodide sticks over Beijing to artificially induce snowfall after four months of drought, and ddid the same over other areas of northern China to increase snowfall. The snowfall in Beijing lasted for approximately three days and led to the closure of 12 main roads around the city. At the end of October 2009, Beijing claimed it had its earliest snowfall since 1987 due to cloud seeding. (4) Worldwide there are currently more than 150 weather modification programs taking place in 37 countries, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado. Most of these are state-backed initiatives, often involving private American companies in consulting roles. Some are single season programs that cost tens of thousands of dollars, other multi-year projects that run into the millions. In India, Thailand, Mexico, The UAE, the Philippines and especially in China, people aren’t just talking about the weather, they’re actually trying to do something about it, notes, George Pendle. (5) Scientists working for the Abu Dhabi government created more than 50 rainstorms in Al Ain in July and August of 2010, during the peak of the Emirate’s summer months. Giant ionizers that create charged particles which act as nuclei for water vapor molecules to aggregate around to start forming clouds which eventually lead to rainfall were used. This can be done in any region as long as the ambient humidity is 30%, or higher. Over 122 days through the summer months, emitters were switched on 74 times when atmospheric humidity reached the required level of 30% or more. During that time, Al Ain experienced rainfall on 52 occasions on days when the country’s own weather service had predicted no clouds and no rain. The project was monitored by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, a leading laboratory for the study of atmospheric physics. (6) In the United States, Project Stormfury was an attempt to weaken tropical cyclones by flying aircraft into them and seeding with silver iodide. The project was run by the government from 1962 to 1983. The hypothesis was that the silver iodide would cause supercooled water in the storm to freeze, disrupting the inner structure of the hurricane. This led to the seeding of several Atlantic hurricanes. However, it was later shown that this hypothesis was incorrect. In reality, it was determined that most hurricanes do not contain enough supercooled water for cloud seeding to be effective. Additionally, researchers found that unseeded hurricanes often undergo the same structural changes that were experienced from seeded hurricanes. (7) In the mountainous areas of the United States such as the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, cloud seeding has been employed since the 1950s. (3) References
  1. Brandon Keim, “China leads weather control race,” wired.com, November 14, 2007
  2. Dambisa Moyo, How the West Was Lost, (New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), 108
  3. “Weather Modification,” Wikipedia.org, September 1, 2012
  4. C. Manjaro, “China to increase weather modification program,” thewatchers.adorraeli.com, May 26, 2012
  5. George Pendle, “The rainmakers,” Financial Times, June 5, 2012
  6. Karen Leigh, “Abu Dhabi-backed scientists create rainstorms in $11 million project,” arabianbusiness.com, January 3, 2011
  7. “Project Stormfury,” Wikipedia, accessed September 11, 2012

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Jack Dini -- Bio and Archives

Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology.  He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.


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