Rain is an essential water source that many farmers and people around the world rely on. There are some regions of the world that have to deal with droughts that can result in dying crops and other harmful effects. Cloud seeding is a revolutionary technology that was developed to help combat the drought problem. This scientific technique and technology is still fairly early on in the development stages. The full impact of cloud seeding is still not fully known.
Pros of Clouding Seeding
1. Creation of Rain
The biggest benefit of cloud seeding is the ability to create rain in areas most affected by droughts. Having the ability to lessen the impact of droughts and bring rain to areas that need it most is extremely powerful. Increased rainfall has the ability to yield more crops and enable some crops to be grown in areas that might not have supported them in the past. This means that cloud seeding might even have the ability to get rid of future famine for some parts of the world.
2. Makes All Areas More Hospitable
There are some dry parts of the world that are not ideal to live in or visit due to droughts. However, cloud seeding has the potential to allow for increased rainfall and make typically dry areas much more hospitable. This might even drive in more tourists and help the overall economy as a result. The effects of cloud seeding have the potential to be far reaching.
Cons of Clouding Seeding
1. Chemical Use
Since cloud seeding does involve the use of putting chemicals in the air, it does have the potential to be harmful to the environment. The placement of these chemicals can have an impact on both plants and animals. It is not fully known what the complete effect of cloud seeding might be to the environment as a whole. Silver iodine is not currently known to be harmful to your heath, but this might change in the future as more and more research is completed and studied.
2. Cost and Effectiveness
Evaluating the effectiveness of cloud seeding is not currently foolproof. Since this technique is mostly used on clouds that already show early signs of potential rainfall it is not known if cloud seeding is actually the reason for the production of rain. The cost of cloud seeding is also pretty astronomical. Delivering chemicals to the sky and releasing them into the air involves high costs that might not even be justified if the effectiveness of cloud seeding is not proven.
What is Cloud Seeding?
This scientific technique designed to help combat droughts and bring rain involves the procedure of moving dry ice or silver iodide aerosols into the uppermost part of a cloud. This technique of cloud seeding is designed to speed up the process or precipitation and create rain. This scientific technology was developed due to the fact that most rainfall actually begins through the formation of ice crystals located on the uppermost part of clouds.
History of Cloud Seeding
The results of cloud seeding are not quite as straightforward as many would hope for. There is a lot of uncertainty involving the cloud seeding results that have been seen so far. It is almost impossible to fully evaluate the effectiveness of cloud seeding, because it is never fully known if a cloud that rains due to seeding might have rained eve without the use of this scientific technique. This is mostly due to the fact that cloud seeding is normally done to clouds that already show the signs of rain.
What Chemicals Are Used?
The process of cloud seeding involves the use of the chemical silver iodine. This chemical is used because it has a crystal structure, which is needed for the production of rain. Silver iodine is dispersed into clouds and rain is sometimes produced as a result. There are a few other chemicals that can be used during the cloud seeding process to yield similar results, but silver iodine is the most prominent.
Is Could Seeding the Future?
This known procedure to produce rain is still in the early stages and a lot of change can be made to enhance this technique. Trying to cure the drought problem is an ongoing battle and cloud seeding is just the latest technology that is being used. Determining if cloud seeding is good or bad might not be as easy as you might assume. There are a lot of advantages and disadvantages of cloud seeding to take into account. Determining the functionality and efficiency of cloud seeding can only be fully understood by weighing both the pros and cons.