It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature – Weather Modification

Amazingly, there is much interest in this topic, and it seems so timely in light of the Coppenhagen Global Climate meetings being held and the proposal by our own Regional Water Agency. There was an article in the LA Times today about how Moscow proposes to engage in weather modification (“cloud seeding”) to cut down on the amount of snow it gets, by seeding the clouds OUTSIDE of town, so the snow dumps there, instead. Must make the neighbors happy, huh?

From global to local … I have also posted a link to the Impact Statement filed by the staff of the local water agency regarding their weather modification plans. Seems it is time for all of us to be tuned in, and to educate ourselves. Here are the links:

LA Times Article

Here is a chilling quote from that article:
“You shouldn’t overstep the threshold over which the weather would change globally,” Danilian says. “We’re trying to look for that threshold in a very careful way.”

And here is our local impact statement on weather modification:

MCRWA’s impact statement

I am particularly confused by plans to do it on the WEST side of the Santa Lucia Mtns. (an error, I hope) and the “tiggering” events that will cause it to be called off, because some of them are completely dependent on the voodoo we call weather predictions. (To NOAA and Charles Bell, you know I’m kidding, right?) But even NOAA has to admit that the “science” of weather prediction has an “art” component.

Our own local agency is proposing to do what Moscow does – control the weather, and for the same reasons – financial. And I think it fascinating to look to global ramifications when discussing local issues.

When do we learn that Mother Nature understands her processes much better than we ever will? Isn’t our arrogance and greed what got us into this Global Warming mess in the first place? And yet, here we are, doing it again — or should I say still doing it.

On 12/12/09, Tom Hopkins, President of the Ventana Wilderness Alliance, sent this around:

“And this excerpt from the Forest Service Manual:

FSM 2300 – RECREATION, WILDERNESS, AND RELATED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER 2320 – WILDERNESS MANAGEMENT
2323.45 – Weather Modification Over Wilderness

Do not permit long-term weather modification programs that produce, during any part of successive years, a repeated or prolonged change in the weather directly affecting wilderness areas. See FSM 2323.04 for approvals.

Approve wilderness as a target area for weather modification only when:

1. The proponent can provide scientifically supportable evidence that the activities will not produce permanent, substantial changes in natural conditions.

2. The proposal includes no feature that will visibly alter or otherwise impact the wilderness environment.

3. The proposal includes no feature that is likely to reduce the value of wilderness for recreation, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, or historical use.

Short-term weather modification activities that produce only occasional, incidental, temporary, or transitory changes in the weather with carryover ground effects that last only a few days beyond the actual cloud-seeding period may be permitted.”