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Albert Salas
May 6th
Prof. Jackie
Sect. 3069
Persuading Mother Nature
During a drought, it may become impossible for farmlands to get water
to support agriculture. Major cities in drought-affected areas modify the
weather around it, the concrete and sky rises trap in heat and change the
direction of the wind, making water more scarce. Water is an important
resource not only for humans and plants, but also for lakes and rivers.
California is very susceptible to forest fires, and lake water is sometime the
only line of defense, with low water levels that may not be the best for
ecosystem. Hot and arid areas around Central and Southern California should
be required to use weather modifications techniques to create rain in order
to raise water levels, support vegetation and replenish cities.
Weather modification is a process that has been used since the 20th
century to control mother nature. Weather modification is mind-blowing; it
has the potential to create environmental catastrophes and manipulate
storms. During the Vietnam War, United States used weather modification,
according to Benestad, During the Cold War, there was talk of seeding

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clouds to produce droughts or flooding that would hamper the enemy, and of
creating hurricanes that could cause as much damage as a nuclear weapon.
And during the Vietnam War, the U.S. Air Force seeded clouds with the
intention of producing rainfall that would make travel along the Ho Chi Minh
Trail more difficult. (para. 5). Weather modification has the potential to be
destructive in the wrong hands. In the hands of farms, airport and the
people, weather modification can create life and sustainability.
Central and southern California are in a prolonged drought with
devastating effects. Farmlands in central California suffering from the
drought, and when farms cant keep afloat, according to Weather
Modification, if farmland fail it can create desertification, a condition that
results when topsoil blows away and exposes bare land that is incapable of
supporting crop growth. This increases albedo, the reflective quality of the
surface of the earth (para. 5). Although, failing farms can increase albedo,
that should not be the fate of farms. The San Juaquin river has seen a
decrease in water levels, due to the low amount of snow that has fallen over
the past years. With new techniques in the field, Although rainfall is
enhanced in the 20 to 30 minutes after seeding starts, as the coalescence
hypothesis predicts, the most dramatic increases come more than 30
minutes after seeding, and seeded storms rain 30 minutes or more longer
than unseeded storms. It is possible to get bigger and longer storms that can
increase snow and rain water around mountains and rivers. Fresh snow has
an albedo of .9 which significantly helps lower global warming.

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Major cities are modifying the weather, not for the better, trapping in
heat and greenhouse gasses, creating acid rain. The height of the cities
changes the flow of the air, creating pollution. According to John Day
Aerosols, or microscopic dust particles, given off in industrial smoke, bond
with water vapor and create city haze and smog. When the aerosols contain
sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, they cause acid rain.(para. 3). Some
people have not yet realized how they contribute to global warming.
Sometimes the weather has to be modified to work to our advantage, like
when airports have low visibility due to fog they modify the weather and
dissipate fog clouds; similar to how In the 1950s and 1960s, scientists
experimented with seeding hurricanes to diminish the storms' severity and
alter their path. (Day 9). If the state is in charge of weather modification
they are able to relieve or diminish natural disasters, in order to save people,
food and water supply.
Water in central and southern California is becoming extremely scarce
as low levels of water and snow continue to keep the Sierra Mountains dry.
And lowering the San Joaquin rivers water level. the Southern California
Edison Company regularly sends out planes to seed rain clouds over the dry
San Joaquin Valley farmland, silver iodide is shot from rockets mounted on
the leading edge of the wings. It is also vaporized into clouds from ground
generators at higher altitudes in the Sierra Mountains. (Weather
Modification 8). Without several years of high levels of rain fall, short cuts

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like the one the Edison Company is taking the Sierra Mountains will have to
be done more routinely.
In the early stages of rainmaking it wasnt regulated as much as it is
now. according to McCormick, United States' cloud-seeding activities in
Vietnam, the U.N. General Assembly approves the Environmental
Modification Convention in December 1976, which bans weather warfare and
other hostile uses of climate manipulation "having widespread, long-lasting
or severe effects. (para. 8). With the ban in place weather modification is
only to help diminish natural disasters rather than creating them.

Annotated Bibliography:
Smith, Joe. Article about Topic for Essay. News Now, News Now, 3 May 2016,
www.thisistheurl.com
This article is about __________. It investigates _______________. The author
interviewed people and found _______________. This article was useful for my essay
because it provides statistics and numerical data, which I needed to include in order
to prove my point that _____________.

Benestad, Rasmus E. "From Rainmaking to Geoengineering." American Scientist99.3 (2011):

265+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 May 2016.
KERR, RICHARD A. "Salted Clouds Pour More Rain on Mexico." Science 289.5488 (2000):
2263. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 May 2016.

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McCormick, Ty. "Geoengineering: anthology of an idea." Foreign Policy 202 (2013): 28+. Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 9 May 2016.
"Weather modification." Environmental Encyclopedia. Gale, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web.
9 May 2016.