Three
quarters of our planet are covered by water. However, it is ironic that the
biggest amount of it is salt water. In fact, only 2.5% of the world’s water is
fresh and, therefore, drinkable or suitable for agriculture. That’s why
droughts—periods of time in which a determined region has lack of water supply,
usually caused by low precipitations—are considered so dangerous for humans. A
drought affects production of food (fruits, vegetables and animal products) and
production of hydroelectric energy, among other activities. But now, scientists
may have found a weapon to fight against droughts.
It is
called cloud seeding. It consists of
the use of chemicals like liquid propane, dry ice or silver iodide to improve
clouds’ process of condensation of water and increase the amount of
precipitations. This can be made using generators, planes and even rockets. The
steps of this process depend on the climatic characteristics of the region.
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| Weather seeds rocket launched in China |
This technique
is currently used with different purposes in Europe, Asia, North America,
Australia and even African countries.
For example, Russian and Ukrainian air forces seeded clouds over
Chernobyl to decrease the amount of acid rain in that area through “forced” precipitations.
Even though
cloud seeding has many benefits, it is also claimed that may carry side effects
for weather and health. The use of chemicals is highly criticized, and some
detractors postulates that it contributes to the global warming instead.
Is this a
technique to be imitated? In what way could it be improved? May we need this
technique in Chile right now? Check the video from the TV program Five Ways to Save the World on the use
of this technique in the US.
