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China launches a plan to manipulate the country's clouds and rains

China launches a plan to manipulate the country's clouds and rains

Global weather modification program

Suspicions grow about the largest climate engineering project in history

Shanghai under heavy fog

Shanghai under heavy fog. Zorazhuang | iStock

China launches a plan to manipulate the country's clouds and rains

Alexis Rodriguez-Rata

Barcelona

02/21/2021 06:00

8

China has the firm intention of controlling the climate. Manipulating the clouds. The rain. Snow. Or hail. And he wants to do it on a scale never seen before. In more than half the country. In more than five million square kilometers. In a territory equivalent to a dozen times the Spanish. The Council of State announced it officially last December. And it has everyone intrigued, to the point of increasing tensions between neighbors that, in total, account for the largest portion of the world's population.

There are already those who mention the possibility of a meteorological war. Even more so if, as Beijing has made public, the program extends to a global objective as well.

Although the how is not a state secret. To make “cloud seeding” a reality, it is enough to use a chemical cocktail based –usually– on silver iodide, which acts on clouds and has effects by modulating rain, snow or hail. His secret is in graduation, he repeats himself. And it has been known since a General Electric employee discovered it by chance after World War II. The US tried to calm hurricanes with this technique in the Stormfury project. It saw a boom in the 1950-1960s that was partly lost when it became known that it had been used in the Vietnam War to flood roads and condition the Vietcong. And in fact Beijing began its development in the 1960s.

Now it goes up the scale and China thinks about breaking all records. According to an official note from the Chinese authorities, he hopes to see the plan completed by 2025 in 56% of the country's total space in terms of rain and snow. In 580,000 square kilometers in terms of hail removal. "By 2035, the modification of the climate must reach an advanced level of the globe," the note finally added.

Cover half the country without causing side effects? And global goals? The suspicions grow. Because although it is expected to help in estimating disasters such as droughts and hail and in protecting the environment by avoiding fires or very high or dry temperatures, causing clouds to discharge in a country can be the same as saying no. do in the neighbor. And this, due to the size of the project it is developing, would affect India (with a population that is also one billion dollar and with which China already sees border problems in the Himalayas, including the use of weapons), Nepal, Burma, Vietnam and many others. .

China launches a plan to manipulate the country's clouds and rains

Global weather modification program

Suspicions grow about the largest climate engineering project in history

Shanghai under heavy fog

Shanghai under heavy fog. Zorazhuang | iStock

China launches a plan to manipulate the country's clouds and rains

Alexis Rodriguez-Rata

Barcelona

02/21/2021 06:00

8

China has the firm intention of controlling the climate. Manipulating the clouds. The rain. Snow. Or hail. And he wants to do it on a scale never seen before. In more than half the country. In more than five million square kilometers. In a territory equivalent to a dozen times the Spanish. The Council of State announced it officially last December. And it has everyone intrigued, to the point of increasing tensions between neighbors that, in total, account for the largest portion of the world's population.

There are already those who mention the possibility of a meteorological war. Even more so if, as Beijing has made public, the program extends to a global objective as well.

Although the how is not a state secret. To make “cloud seeding” a reality, it is enough to use a chemical cocktail based –usually– on silver iodide, which acts on clouds and has effects by modulating rain, snow or hail. His secret is in graduation, he repeats himself. And it has been known since a General Electric employee discovered it by chance after World War II. The US tried to calm hurricanes with this technique in the Stormfury project. It saw a boom in the 1950-1960s that was partly lost when it was learned that it had been used in the Vietnam War to flood roads and condition the Vietcong. And in fact Beijing began its development in the 1960s.

seeding-clouds

Image description La Vanguardia

Now it goes up the scale and China thinks about breaking all records. According to an official note from the Chinese authorities, he hopes to see the plan completed by 2025 in 56% of the country's total space in terms of rain and snow. In 580,000 square kilometers in terms of hail removal. "By 2035, the modification of the climate must reach an advanced level of the globe," the note finally added.

Cover half the country without causing side effects? And global goals? The suspicions grow. Because although it is expected to help in estimating disasters such as droughts and hail and in protecting the environment by avoiding fires or very high or dry temperatures, causing clouds to discharge in a country can be the same as saying no. do in the neighbor. And this, due to the size of the project it is developing, would affect India (with a population that is also one billion dollar and with which China already sees border problems in the Himalayas, including the use of weapons), Nepal, Burma, Vietnam and many others. .

This picture taken on January 24, 2019 shows a man looking at an aircraft from the Korea Meterological Administration (KMA) ready to disperse silver iodide, a compound believed to cause rain to fall, in a hanger at Gimpo airport in Seoul. - Seoul on January 25 sent aircraft over the Yellow Sea to carry out cloud-seeding experiments in an effort to tackle air pollution many South Koreans blame on China. (Photo by YONHAP / YONHAP / AFP) / - South Korea OUT / REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT NO ARCHIVES RESTRICTED TO SUBSCRIPTION USE

A Korean Meteorological Administration plane at Seoul's Gimpo International Airport prepared to spread silver iodide for cloud seeding in the country. AFP

If it rains more in China, will it not rain in your countries? Is the fear real?

Andrea Flossmann, co-president of the group specialized in weather modification of the World Meteorological Organization and professor at the Blaise Pascal University in Clermont-Ferrand (France), responds to La Vanguardia: “At the moment we have no evidence that there is a theft of water from the neighbor, but so far the planting has not been done on such a large scale. And so the debate. It may change in the future. It should be monitored ”.

This same scientist explains that Spain sowed in the past. Israel does it now. Other countries especially carry out a hail prevention program such as France, Russia, Romania or Moldova. “And currently cloud seeding for increased rainfall is being done on a large scale in Asia, Africa and America. There are more than forty countries and there is a tendency to increase due to droughts, in view of climate change ”, she details.

At the moment we have no evidence that there is 'theft' of water from the neighbor, but so far the planting has not been done on such a large scale

Andrea Flossmann Co-Chair of the Weather Modification Group at the World Meteorological Organization and Professor at Blaise Pascal University

Xulio Ríos, director of the Observatory of Chinese Politics and the founder and honorary president of the Galician Institute for International Analysis and Documentation (Igadi), however, puts it in the context of a conflict that goes further:

Why is cloud seeding a concern in neighboring countries?

"For many neighboring countries, which can understand China's concern about the drought, it rains over wet," he notes. And he continues: “Especially in view of the problems around the Mekong, which is the most important watercourse in Southeast Asia and over which there has been a certain controversy for years due to reservoirs and Chinese power plants that do not they take into account the downstream impact. " Thus, there is a serious problem with the region's water resources "although as UN-Water says there is no other way out than cooperation," he concludes. Ríos assures for this reason that the US has already lined up to argue with China

Part of the dilemma with cloud seeding, however, is that it is not always done in a clear way. “I suspect it is becoming more popular, but it is difficult to know who is sowing today or even who was doing it 20 years ago. The successes are quite limited, although better than in the past, and this comes with greater pressure to continue further even if a positive result is unlikely, ”continues Steven Siems, Professor of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment Studies. environment of the Monash University, based in Melbourne, and the main ones in Australia.

Among them, China stands out, with the largest and most ambitious project, both for its scientific and political repercussions. To this he has allocated a millionaire budget. And it conducts continuous testing in the form of mineral-filled bullets, aircraft, and rocket launchers. Successfully, as he demonstrated by securing good weather at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, anticipating the fall rains before the tournament began. Or at various military parades of symbolic importance to Beijing. In 2019, Chinese official media said that cloud seeding had prevented 70% of the damage to crops in the western Xinjiang region.

Flossmann herself points out that “in our documents we confirm that seeding has incremental effects of over 10% and that humidity and clouds are needed. China has been doing it for a while now, and on relatively large scales, not just to increase rainfall, but to prevent it. "

China is also trying to do so with a reduction in costs, putting aside airplanes and facing, for example, combustion chambers installed on the ridges of Tibetan mountains that use the monsoon wind to lift the necessary particles. Because in the Himalayas is where its three great rivers, the Yangtze, the Mekong and the Yellow, are born. And he wants to control them. As it does with mega-infrastructure such as the Three Gorges Dam. Hence, in turn, another doubt:

Is cloud seeding dangerous for the environment?

Siems responds to the question: “I am not aware that commonly used seeding agents (eg silver iodide) have had an impact. In Australia, a very detailed environmental analysis was carried out 15 years ago and groundwater continues to be monitored annually. The overall concentration of these seeding agents is actually very small compared to the fuel required to disperse them (eg jet fuel or from a ground generator). Hygroscopic seeding commonly uses salt, which is even more benign. But there is an effort being made to develop new and more effective seeding agents and I cannot speak for them. "

Its real impact is somewhat ignored. Hence the growing skepticism. The unilateralism of the projects by China also increases suspicions.

Spain, test territory

By Ana Carrasco González

Spain was a test territory by the World Meteorological Organization between 1979 and 1981, with the Program for the Intensification of Precipitation, especially in the Duero basin. Between those years, however, the rainfall was never increased by seeding clouds. “In 1979, in Valladolid, different techniques for observing the clouds of the place were developed and they did not meet any type of possible conditions to carry out cloud seeding experiences. The project came to a halt ”, says José Luis Sánchez, professor of Applied Physics at the University of León and researcher of these experiments. The fight against hail has been taking place in several areas of Spain (Valencian Community, Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, Aragon, La Rioja or Catalunya), practically continuously since 79. The main objective is to avoid losses in the field of agriculture as a result of hail. In Aragon, the fight against hail has also led to a consortium led by Fernando Peligero. The main objective is to avoid losses in agriculture as a consequence of hail. "The anti-hail fight that currently exists in Spain gives me the impression that it is done in a particular way, removing the CChttps://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20210221/6237080/china-plan-manipular-nubes-lluvias-territorio-diez-veces-espana.html?fbclid=IwAR2VIfdKqutB9tS1YnCiwxTXglcnxmMIWgO_I_NizT_WwWlHvfsyO8rk0vYCommunityommunityommunity of Madrid and here in Aragon", comments Peligero.