Beijing's first snow of season 'artificially induced'

Regis Philbin · Nov 1st, 2009, 08:49 PM

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/2009110...w-8d4ea94.html

Quote:

Beijing's first snow of season 'artificially induced'

AFP - Monday, November 2

BEIJING (AFP) - – Chinese meteorologists covered Beijing in snow Sunday after seeding clouds to bring winter weather to the capital in an effort to combat a lingering drought, state media reported.

The unusually early snow blanketed the capital from Sunday morning and kept falling for half the day, helped by temperatures as low as minus 2 Celsius (29 Fahrenheit) and strong winds from the north, Xinhua news agency reported.

Besides falling in the northeastern provinces of Liaoning and Jilin and the northern province of Hebei, the eastern port city of Tianjin also got its first snow of the autumn, the report said.

"We wont miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought," the report quoted Zhang Qiang, head of the Beijing Weather Modification Office, as saying.

Chinese meteorologists have for years sought to make rain by injecting special chemicals into clouds.

Java · Nov 3rd, 2009, 08:12 PM

For a number of decades in northern China water tables have been falling at an alarming rate because of the wells being used to withdraw it as the main source of water for industry, agriculture and living, and with irrigation used by agriculture taking up about 70 pc of this water. Even the water from this artificial snow is not enough to replentish what is still being currently drawn out. There is a much larger crisis going on and this news is only the just the tip of the proverbial iceburg. Add to this the same kind of situation going on in northwest India and one will notice two areas with large populations facing dire circumstances that will someday produce a world-wide impact... if we dont already have enough problems to worry about. (ie: climate change, rising sea levels, the sun's weakening magnetic field allowing much higher influxes of cosmic rays to pentrate into the inner solar system to potentially fry the sensitive electronics in all the satellites we depend upon, etc, etc,...)

Nov 3rd, 2009, 08:12 PM	#2
Java Registered User Join Date: May 2000 Location: Holy Cow! Posts: 8,862	Falling water tables and much more... For a number of decades in northern China water tables have been falling at an alarming rate because of the wells being used to withdraw it as the main source of water for industry, agriculture and living, and with irrigation used by agriculture taking up about 70 pc of this water. Even the water from this artificial snow is not enough to replentish what is still being currently drawn out. There is a much larger crisis going on and this news is only the just the tip of the proverbial iceburg. Add to this the same kind of situation going on in northwest India and one will notice two areas with large populations facing dire circumstances that will someday produce a world-wide impact... if we dont already have enough problems to worry about. (ie: climate change, rising sea levels, the sun's weakening magnetic field allowing much higher influxes of cosmic rays to pentrate into the inner solar system to potentially fry the sensitive electronics in all the satellites we depend upon, etc, etc,...)