Do you guys think in the future we'll be able to control the weather? I.E. fake atmosphere or a way to destroy clouds
there are a number of things we can do now. have done. have been doing. are doing. enough vapour trails ARE clouds. seed them and they percipitate. not something easily done from a satalite in high orbit. so control in any absolute sense is something of a fantasy. and considering how irrisponsible society's priorities tend to be, this is a damd good thing. there are many things that can be done that don't make a lot of very good sense to. and it's a pretty darn good thing they aren't any easier to then they are. and of course that's really one of the problems we're having. we've come up with more and more powerful tools, without comming up with the self dicipline collectively to use them responsibly. we are, in a sense, 'controlling' the weather NOW. it's called global warming. it isn't really "control". it isn't an effect diliberately created or one that any one intentioinaly wants. or at least i hope it isn't. we can't expect innovation to always come along in time to save our buts for us if we keep refusing to wipe them ourselves. we've gotten spoiled as a species because of what oil, as long as it has been as cheap as it has for a approximately one century, has made possible. but it's time and past time we start waking up and realizing we can't always count on that either. and what we destroy out of our emotional attatchment to it, could well be the collective death of all of us. there isn't much we're not able to do now, other then use better sense then we have been, in choosing what to, and in the incentives that we togather create for each other. there are things we'll be able to do in more practical ways then we currently know of. that's the proccess that goes on and on because the drive to create is what has made us what we are as it is. time and the weather are things i'm highly sceptical of as being a good idea to seek to control. even some of the mega dam projects that exist have been and remain highly questionable as to net bennifit. i'm not against tecnology nor the innovation of it, i've just observed too much more harm then good come of the conjunction of collective ego and massive scale means of gratifying it. =^^= .../\...
Hey, I found your question so interesting, that I did a little research on the subject, and look at what I learned: Well, they currently can do a thing called "seeding" the clouds, which is a type of weather modification. "Seeding the clouds" is defined as an "intentional treatment of individual clouds or storm systems for the purpose of achieving a beneficial effect without harming the people or the environment." It is written that Dr. Vincent J. Schaefer is the father of modern weather modification, and he experimented with the first field experiments in 1946! What they do is basically alter the physical processes that lead to the growth of water droplets and ice crystal formation in clouds. Scientists have reputedly been experimenting with it since then, and have worked on scientific processes to develop techniques to cause predictable results when applied under proper supervision. Of prime importance are: (1) the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the clouds, (2) the lifetime of the clouds, and (3) the sizes and concentrations of cloud droplets and ice particles in the clouds. Under proper conditions, one or more of these three factors can be favorably modified by seeding the cloud with the appropriate stuff. There is a group called the "Weather Modification Association" that practices weather modification, and primarily does this type of research for the government, universities and private industry sponsors across the U.S. and many foreign countries. Yikes! Sounds like that kind of leaves the rest of us "citizens" out! My opinion is that for man to "modify" the weather is really man messing with Mother Nature. This gives rise to a saying I remember old folks saying when I was a kid, and that saying was: "It's not a good thing to fool with Mother Nature." The general message they were trying to convey was that if you attemped to alter the natural flow of things, it'd come back to haunt you in a bad way; in other words, it was not a good idea. Mother Nature has this thing called the "Balance of Nature", and she knows exactly what she's doing. Where man gets off thinking he can just jump in and do something like change the way clouds behave and expect it not to cause negative ramifications, is beyond me. They say they alter the clouds now for only good reasons, but just like anything else in this world, I say if that kind of technology gets into the wrong hands, then, well ...... hmmm ..... the possibilities could be endless. But, wait a minute here - it could already be in the wrong hands - the article did say that one of the groups that the Association currently did this type of research for was the Government! Whoa! Sincere Regards, Michaela _______________________________________ "They will never make a perfect heart until they make one that can't be broken." ........ The Wizard, "The Wizard of Oz" _______________________________________
