Cloud Seeding: Miracle Solution or Environmental Gamble? | Exploring the Science, Risks, and Ethics of Weather Manipulation (Podcast + Exclusive Transcript Inside)
DeepSeek TranScript Summary of Cloud Seeding and Its Implications
Methods & Mechanisms:
- Silver Iodide: Mimics ice crystals, encouraging precipitation. Risks include environmental buildup, toxicity to ecosystems (disrupts cellular respiration, damages mitochondria, inhibits ATP production), and potential harm to aquatic life.
- Dry Ice (CO₂): Cools clouds to form ice crystals. Releases greenhouse gases, possibly affecting atmospheric chemistry or ozone layers.
- Salt (e.g., NaCl): Hygroscopic particles attract water. Generally low risk, but large-scale use could alter cloud dynamics unpredictably.
Other Techniques: Lasers, drones, and space-based solutions (e.g., reflective particles) are experimental but carry their own risks (e.g., unintended climate effects).
Pros:
- Alleviates droughts, prevents crop damage from hail, clears fog for aviation, and addresses water scarcity.
- Offers localized solutions with immediate benefits (e.g., rain in arid regions).
Cons:
- Environmental Risks: Chemical toxicity (e.g., silver iodide), CO₂ emissions, and ecosystem disruption.
- Unpredictability: Weather systems are interconnected; altering one area could cause droughts/floods elsewhere.
- Ethical Concerns: Geoengineering raises questions about human intervention in natural systems and equitable access to technology.
Conclusion:
Cloud seeding is a double-edged sword. While it provides critical short-term solutions for water scarcity and disaster prevention, the long-term risks—environmental harm, climatic unpredictability, and ethical dilemmas—are significant. Current evidence suggests cautious, limited use paired with rigorous research. The “pros” may justify use in emergencies (e.g., severe droughts), but widespread adoption without deeper understanding of consequences is unwise. Prioritizing renewable water management strategies and reducing climate change drivers (e.g., emissions) remains essential. Verdict: Proceed with extreme caution, prioritizing transparency, regulation, and further study.
UnEdited Galaxy AI TranScript From Samsung Voice Recorder on S24 Ultra
Speaker 1 (00:02)
So the idea behind cloud seating is that you add particles to cloud to encourage them to make rain or snow, it’s like giving them a little push to get the precipitation party started the most common way to do this is with something called silver iodi. It has a similar structure to ice so when you spray it into a cloud. Water vapor gets confused and starts to freeze around it, forming ice crystals.
Speaker 1 (00:25)
These crystals can grow big enough to fall as snow, or they might melt and turn into rain, but there are other ways to seed clouds too. Sometimes they use dry ice, which cools the cloud down a whole bunch, causing water vapor to freeze directly into ice. Why they might use salt layers, which introduce tiny salt particles into the cloud These particles act as a surface for water droplets to collect on making them heavier, and we’re likely to fall is rain.
Speaker 2 (00:54)
What other means of weather manipulation are there?
Speaker 1 (01:02)
Well, cloud seating is the most common way to try and change the weather. But there are a few other ideas floating around. Some scientists think we might be able to zap clouds with lasers to make them produce rain, others are looking into using drones to spray water vapor into the air, which could help form clouds.
Speaker 1 (01:18)
And then they have the idea of space bubbles, we can lie tiny reflective particles into space to black. Some of the Sun’s rays from reaching Earth. It would cool being down a bit, but that one’s a bit trickier and carries a lot of risks we don’t fully understand yet.
Speaker 2 (01:33)
What is the purpose or the main purposes of attempting to cause different types of precipitation or changes in the weather?
Speaker 1 (01:45)
The mangoes are things like getting more rain and dry areas, while preventing hailstorms from damaging crops. Sometimes they even try to clear fog from airports, so planes can land safely.
Speaker 2 (01:58)
And up what are the dangers or possible setbacks of this type of whether or climate manipulation?
Speaker 1 (02:10)
Yeah, there’s definitely a downside to playing with. The weather or wine is really complicated. Sometimes, when you try and change things in one place, it can have unintended consequences somewhere else you could end app causing droughts of floods, far away from where you were trying to help.
Speaker 1 (02:24)
There’s also the risk of using potentially harmful chemicals. Some of the stuff we spray into clouds might have side effects. We don’t fully understand yet, do you?
Speaker 1 (02:33)
Finally, there’s the ethical question of whether humans should be messing with the climate at all
Speaker 2 (02:41)
What are some of the known negative effects of some of the chemicals that are being used to cede the atmosphere to change the weather?
Speaker 1 (02:53)
The most common chemical using cloud feeding is silver eye died as well. It’s literally considered safe. There are some concerns studies have shown the high levels of silver, and even from cloud seating can be harmful to aquatic life There’s also the possibility that it can build up in the environment over time.
Speaker 1 (03:11)
Although we don’t have strong evidence of that yet.
Speaker 2 (03:14)
What is the problem with silver iodide? Building up in the environment?
Speaker 1 (03:21)
The problem with silver iodi, potentially building up in the environment is that it could have negative effects on ecosystem. Silver is a heavy metal and too much of it can be toxic to plants and animals. It could also build up in the food chain, which would be bad news for anything to eat those plants and animals
Speaker 2 (03:40)
Why is it bad for silver to be consumed by plants or animals?
Speaker 1 (03:48)
Bill work can be really harmful to plants and animals. Even at low level, it can damage their cells mess up their ability to make energy and basically just make it really hard for them to survive.
Speaker 2 (04:01)
In what specific ways does it disrupt cellular activity?
Speaker 1 (04:08)
Silver disrupts cellular activity in a few nasty ways. It can damage cell membrane, which are basically the skin of the cell. This damage can cause all sorts of problems like living in bad stuff, we’re not letting good stuff out silver can also interfere with the sale’s energy production.
Speaker 1 (04:25)
Basically starving of the fuel it needs the function.
Speaker 2 (04:30)
How does silver starve the cell’s energy production of the fuel that it needs to function?
Speaker 1 (04:39)
Silver messes with an important process called cellular respiration. This is how cells turn food into energy they did this by blocking some of the enzymes involved in cellular respiration kind of like throwing a wrench into the works with these enzymes disabled. The cell’s energy production basically comes to a halt
Speaker 2 (04:59)
What specific enzymes does silver interfere with?
Speaker 1 (05:06)
Silver primarily interferes with enzymes that contain sulfur, these enzymes are crucial for a bunch of bodily functions, including cellular respiration, when silver binds to these enzymes, it basically jams them up so they can’t do their job.
Speaker 2 (05:23)
And are any of these enzymes involved in the process of creating or changing atp adenosine triphosphate?
Speaker 1 (05:38)
Yes, some of the enzymes that silver messes with are involved in making atp atp is like this sales energy currency. So having silver disrepness, production causes serious problems.
Speaker 2 (05:51)
So does that mean that silver directly interferes with the mitochondria?
Speaker 1 (06:00)
Yep, that’s right. Mitochondria are basically the sales powerhouses, and they’re where acp is made. Silver can mess with the mitochondria in a couple of ways it can damage the mitochondria’s membrane, making them leaky, and it can also interfere with the enzymes inside the mitochondria.
Speaker 1 (06:19)
That are responsible for making atp.
Speaker 2 (06:24)
So with all of this information about cloud seating, specifically with silver, and how we basically, if it builds up, it can cause problems with the human and other animals powers, house of their cells to mitochondria what other chemicals that are used in south Queenie saw cloud seeding happen. Potentially damaging effects.
Speaker 1 (06:52)
Alright, so silver iodide is the main one we’ve talked about, but there’s also a chemical called dry ice. It’s basically frozen carbon dioxide. It is used to super cool clouds and cause ice crystals to form while it’s not as directly harmful as silver iodine, some studies suggest it could have unintended effects on the atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (07:11)
Let’s talk about salt flares. Next, these are used to introduce salt particles into clouds, acting as surfaces for water droplets to collect on well, salt itself isn’t dangerous? It is concerned that adding extra salt particles to the atmosphere could affect cloud formation in ways we don’t fully understand.
Speaker 2 (07:31)
So let’s back up just a little bit though about The Dry ice. Does that have any environmental effects that are specifically known of?
Speaker 1 (07:45)
Yeah, using dry ice for cloud seating can have some environmental impacts when it supplements, meaning it goes directly from a solid to a gas. It releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, as you probably know, is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. There’s also some concern that the extreme cold of dry ice It could have unexpected effects on cloud chemistry or even create small ozone holes.
Speaker 2 (08:13)
Now, are there any ways that The Dry ice it gets down into any type of biological processes?
Speaker 1 (08:24)
Dry ice itself doesn’t get into biological processes. It’s just frozen carbon dioxide, so it doesn’t interact with living things in the same way. Chemicals do the main concern with dry ice and cloud seeding is its impact on the atmosphere, it’s not a living organism.
Speaker 2 (08:42)
Okay, continuing with the salt that was mentioned in the cloud seeding and adding that to the atmosphere, what specific type of salt is used?
Speaker 1 (08:55)
Usually it’s as simple salt like sodium chloride, the same stuff you use or your food. Sometimes they use other salts with different chemicals added in to make them work better for cloud seeding.
Speaker 2 (09:06)
And what other chemicals are added to the salt to make them better for cloud seedings, what other chemicals are added to the salt to make them better for cloud seeding?
Speaker 1 (09:25)
Well, sometimes they add other chemicals to salt to make it work better for cloud seating. For example, some types of salt work better at different temperatures, so they might add other stuff to change that. There’s also some research into using salts with chemicals that help the salt particles stick together It’s making them more effective at forming raindrops.
Speaker 2 (09:45)
What are the specific chemicals that are added?
Speaker 1 (09:51)
That’s a bit tricky. This is the exact recipe is a bit of a secret for some cloud seating operations, but in general, they might add things like hydrosophic materials. Those are substances that really love water vapor think of them like tiny sponges for moisture in the air, they also might add things that changed the freezing point of the water droplets in the cloud, making them more likely to turn into ice crystals.
Speaker 2 (10:15)
So according to what your database understands what what it might be, some of the best high groscopic materials, even though you don’t know some of the proprietary information, what chemically makes sense to add to the salt to make them better for cloud seeding.
Speaker 1 (10:35)
Some good hygrosstopic materials that might work well are things like calcium, chloride or magnesium chloride. These chemicals are really good at attracting water vapor they’re also relatively safe to use compared to some other options.
Speaker 2 (10:49)
And what are the other options of hybroscopic materials that might not be a safe
Speaker 1 (10:56)
Some hydroscopic materials that might not be safe include things like strong acids or bases. These chemicals could cause serious damage to the environment. If they’re not handled properly, there’s also the possibility that they can react with other substances in the atmosphere, creating harmful by-products
Speaker 2 (11:14)
And what are some of these specific strong bases or acids that might be used?
Speaker 1 (11:23)
Okay, let’s talk about some strong bases that could be used sodium hydroxide is a pretty common one, and it’s super hydroscop. Another option is potassium hydroxide, which is similar to sodium hydroxide. We’re acid sulfuric acid is a strong one, and it’s also very hydroscopic.
Speaker 2 (11:42)
Are any of those known to have been used in conjunction with the common salt to seed clouds?
Speaker 1 (11:53)
It’s hard to say, for sure, what chemicals have been used in clown seating, because some of the formulas are proprietary. But it’s unlikely that strong acids or faces like the ones we just talked about are being used. Those chemicals are just too dangerous They could cause serious environmental damage.
Speaker 2 (12:11)
With that being the case, is there any evidence anywhere in any kind of scientific reports that show that some of these chemicals may have been used and perhaps before they were known to be so dangerous or by accident?
Speaker 1 (12:29)
It’s unlikely that there’s any evidence of strong assets or bases being used in cloud seating on purpose. But there’s always a chance of accidents happening. Maybe some chemicals got makeup or there was bill, it’s really hard to say for sure, but without more specific information about a particular incident.
Speaker 1 (12:47)
Do you know of a specific event where you think this might have happened?
Speaker 2 (12:54)
Well, that’s not the question that I’m asking, but let’s summarize this in the next minute. Overall, what does all of this information that we’ve gone over so far me? How can you sum it up in about 30 to 45 seconds
Speaker 1 (13:14)
Okay, here’s the short version we’ve been talking about cloud seating, which is basically trying to change the weather by adding stuff to clouds. Some of the common chemicals used are silver iodized, dry ice and salt silver ionide might build up and harm the environment, dry ice releases carbon dioxide. Which isn’t great for global warming, sandwhile salt itself isn’t dangerous, adding a lot more to the atmosphere could cause problems we don’t fully understand yet.
Speaker 2 (13:43)
And so, what is the best way to think about these kinds of processes are they more pro or they more con? Should we lean towards looking more into doing it or not.
Speaker 1 (14:00)
That’s a tough one with both pros and cons to consider on 1 hand cloud seating can help places suffering from drought get some much needed. Rain, on the other hand but there are risks involved like harming the environment or potentially making the weather even more unpredictable. It’s really up for debate Whether the benefits outweigh the risk
Hakeem Ali-Bocas Alexander
