Why fear when Cloud Seeding is here!

One of the distinct memories I cherish of my first experience in an airplane was flying into foamy, cotton balled, almost heavenly white clouds that hung close to my window seat that I had so excitedly captured. They had reminded me of some of the pictures in my Greek fairy tale books that showed beautifully painted angels dressed in white and gold floating on these pristine clouds. One can only imagine the excitement when I felt like one!

As time passed and flying became common place, there was a recurring sight of colored clouds. Not just grey or indigo towards evening, but almost yellow! Clouds seemed like they needed a wash in a strong detergent to get rid of the awful stains that were few and far between. With time, these only increased in frequency and were visible while on ground too. The concept of “Pollution” was discussed at length and the adverse effects of smoke plus the smog were drilled down in text book lessons. The “Green House Effect” discussions used to end with references to the invisible Ozone layer – at first many school students thought the syllabus included discussion on a new discotheque that had opened in the city! Kids grew with understanding the importance of the O3 as sessions progressed.

The transition from Green House Effect to renewable and non-renewable resources was quite smooth. Just as lighting up a magnesium ribbon! So, water, coal and petroleum were non-renewable. Wait, water was termed as a renewable source when I studied (either I have grown too old or the water table is now in a limbo due to sudden change in usage patterns!). I was quite annoyed when I discovered that I don’t live anywhere close to perennial rivers – which were the Ganga and Brahmaputra! But now I see that even these rivers too have not been able to escape the axe of depletion. Although rains were unpredictable then, the number of complaining heads (about shortage of rains) seems to have multiplied significantly over the past few years. When all this complaining became far too noisy to handle, those in power referred to a technology that was developed a year before the Indian Independence. Cloud seeding, the newspapers reported, would solve the problems of water shortage in Bangalore.

Although no detailed explanation was available, the rains came and how! It poured continuously in places that had never expected rains. Water shortage issues too reduced, if not completely erased. The experiment was repeated in various other parts of the country. In some places it rained to the point of flooding an unprepared city, while in others it was a positive infusion. There was news about how China used it before the Olympics to clear out a smoggy stratosphere. It started to seem like finally there is a method of solving the issue of Pollution. Pollution – one that haunts students who are made to write long essays around it and mankind at large that wants clear, fresh air to breathe (and not spend time & money in Oxygen bars!).

Now Cloud Seeding – the seemingly obvious answer to water / rainfall shortage and thereby the solution to problems of pollution – was first developed by a researcher named Schaefer based on an idea that struck him while he was climbing a mountain (obviously, he must have thought about the ice axe, harness, not to mention his life, after the discovery!). The cloud seeding done in recent times include a heady mix of dry ice, silver iodide, salt (who knew!) and expanded liquid propane gas. Research on the after effects of the methodology has proved that though the effectiveness is there in varying measures, the contents may cause “temporary incapacitation or possible residual injury to humans and mammals with intense or continued but not chronic exposure”. Though exposure to the material can be controlled (hopefully so!) there is another disturbing fact. Although not on the same scale of industrial emissions, the technology amounts to pollution! This toxicity prompted Cloud Seeding to be rejected by Australia, which wanted to protect one of its endangered species.

Whether there an anti-dote to fight the ill-effects of silver iodide exists, is yet to be known. But somehow it seems like a maze of concentric circles where one begins with Pollution as a problem and ends up with Pollution as an after effect.

Wonder when the white fluffy clouds that I once saw out of my airplane window will return to stay for good. May be I could use the abracadabra hexes in the book of Grecian fairy tales!

Image: puppetgov.com

Divya Rao
10th June, 2010
Mumbai