artillery for rain

 

there’s a really interesting story that has been floating around as of late regarding beijing’s plans to control the weather for the opening ceremonies of the 2008 summer olympics.  a few days ago we discussed the more than beautiful herzog and de meuron stadium and national swim center for the ‘08 games, now the story is the weather.  apparently, chinese meteorologists have forcasted the weather as far out as the august 8th 2008 opening ceremonies and decided that the chance of rain is 50/50 (ironic, no?).  well the chinese government is not willing to risk rain during the games’ opening ceremonies.  to prevent any such precipitation the chinese are prepared to fire silver iodine bullets using anti-aircraft artillery.  the silver iodine, in turn, forces the clouds to dump their precipitation, thus eliminating the threat of rain before it can occur.  china currently has the world’s largest  employeed rain-making force, totaling over 3,000 people.  treehugger has more great information regarding the beijing olympics fake rain and the potential health hazards as a result of routinely poor air quality.