Cloud Seeding Concerns
After looking into China’s Weather Modification program, and its Olympic Weather plans, I began to wonder what kind of effect such practices could have long term.
Putting aside the image of regional farmers equipped to work rocket launchers and anti-aircraft artillery—which leads to a whole different set of concerns—I wondered about the dangers of shooting silver iodide into the sky. Wasn’t anyone concerned about what kind of rain was coming back down?
Turns out, they are.
While researchers from organizations like North American Weather Consultants Inc (NAWC) claim that the silver iodide crystals are so dispersed only trace amounts can be found in test samples that fall to Earth, others are crying foul.
Ranchers in the Texas Panhandle fear that even trace amounts of silver iodide could add up to dreadful effects for their families, their crops, and their potential consumers. Meanwhile, researchers from the University of Ulm, Germany, and Cardiff University, UK, joined forces in the Journal of Proteome Research to highlight the potentially harmful “nanobacteria” present in clouds, which cloud seeding could assist in triggering.
In fact, the EPA classifies Silver Iodide with a caution that “the toxicological properties…have not been fully investigated” but it may cause eye and skin irritation, respiratory and digestive tract irritation, and reproductive and fetal effects.
A study from Dartmouth University’s Toxic Metals Research program found that silver, the metal itself, is not toxic or harmful to humans, but that high doses of silver nitrate (or forms that contain large quantities of free ions) are “highly toxic to aquatic creatures.” They add that “scientists now suspect that lower doses of silver compounds over longer periods of time may have more subtle but equally worrisome effects on fish and other aquatic organisms.”
For years, one of the main counterarguments to cloud seeding has been the idea of “robbing Peter, to pay Paul.” But there has been no verifiable method for Farm B, two counties away, to prove that the rain Farm A received would ever have fallen for them. Weather is just unpredictable that way.
NAWC adds that the overall proportion of available moisture that reaches the ground via cloud seeding is only a slight increase over what falls naturally, but research shows that areas as far as 100 miles downwind of cloud seeding projects have also shown an increase in precipitation. Plus, the cloud-bearing layer of the atmosphere undergoes “nearly continuous moisture replenishment.” Therefore, the idea that the rain is “taken” from others is false.
But the environmental concerns, somewhat reflective of the beginnings of mercury fears in consumable fish and groundwater, are becoming more prevalent. The Worldwatch Institute is even conducting a poll on whether cloud seeding is environmentally responsible. The results, so far, show that 57 percent of respondents feel that it is irresponsible to interfere with the weather, and 38 percent believe more information is needed, so we should be “extremely cautious” if we are to proceed.
Will we see reports ten years from now on the horrid effects of playing with Mother Nature…again? Like with most technological advancements, only time will tell. But, in the meantime, there does seem to be a subtle shift away from the “cold” cloud seeding with silver iodide toward “warm” cloud seeding, which uses salts instead.
This shift could be the result of environmental concerns…or an attempt to save costs or improve results…or maybe we’ll soon be looking into the negatives of using salts. As my father liked to say when he didn’t know the answer or didn’t want to decide, “We’ll see.”
