Hugo Chavez: ardent socialist, Venezuelan president, rain maker?
A crippling drought in his country has led Chavez to embrace cloud seeding. This week, he announced that he will team up with Cuban scientists to fly through clouds and “zap” them with silver iodide so they produce precipitation, one of the most popular kinds of cloud seeding and the one China said it used to induce a snowstorm this February.
Reuters was there to catch the president’s excitement:
“I’m going in a plane; any cloud that crosses me, I’ll zap it so that it rains,” Chavez said.
Seeding the clouds doesn’t do any good if there’s no moisture to begin with, but we presume that President Chavez wants to try anything that might help. Anyway, “zapping” is a more pleasing alternative to threatening, which the president previously tried on his countrymen. From UPI:
Earlier this month Chavez accused Venezuelans, including businesses, of wasting water and warned of tough punitive measures. He advised people … to limit showering to three minutes. Jacuzzis, watering of lawns and flowerbeds and filling of swimming pools have all been banned.
For the sake of Venezuela’s swimmers, horticulture enthusiasts, and hot tub manufacturers, here’s hoping the president’s plan is a success.
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Image: flickr/ Daniel Zanini H.
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:02 am
Chavez,president of Venezula has taken a very good decision to take up cloud seeding for increasing rainfall by cold cloud seeding.In order to get maximum benefits,he must use both warm and cold clouds and squeeze more precipitation by sprinkling hygroscopic salts into warm clouds by using ground generators and aeroplanes.similarly,he must sprinkle silver iodide into cold clouds by using both ground generators and aeroplanes.
Cloud seeding is a God Given Gift to wise people all over the world.In fact 150 experiments on cloud seeding are being done in 40 countries since 40 years including C
China,Japan,Australia,Israil,Thailand ,Russia and uynited states.China is using 37000 technicians for cloud seeding to get additional annual rainfall of 65 cubic meters at a cost benefit ratio of 1:27.China,Texas and japan are getting 40% additional annual rainfall by cloud seeding.
Weather Modification has been refined to such an extent in China that they are ordering clouds either to precipitate more rainfall or snowfall or to stop clouds from raining in a specified place by over-seeding the clouds to get them dispersed so that the raindrops cannot form at the target place.For more information on the science and technology of cloud seeding see the following web sites:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-07/24/content_351196.htm
http://www.gitam.edu/cos/env/English-Book.pdf
http://shivajirao.cloudseeding.googlepages.com/scienceofcloudseeding
http://jcsepa.mri-jma.go.jp/outreach/20070131/Presentations/P3_Yao.pdf
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2714955.htm
prof.T.Shivaji Rao.B.E.,M.S[Rice,Texas,1962]P.hD[Hony]
Director,Environmental studies,Gitam University and
Expert,cloud seeding project of government of Andhra Pradesh,india