To ensure good weather for the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese national Weather Modification Office (yes, it does exist) is preparing for war with the weather. An immense military array is being deployed to fire silver iodide at the atmosphere, MIT’s Technology Review reports, to prevent rain from falling on Beijing during the Olympic games. According to the article, China’s national weather modification program has some “1,500 weather modification professionals directing 30 aircraft and their crews, as well as 37,000 part-time workers–mostly peasant farmers–who are on call to blast away at clouds with 7,113 anti-aircraft guns and 4,991 rocket launchers.”
For more on cloud seeding and weather modification, read “Climate Changers” from the September/October issue of Utne Reader.
