• 0 Posts
  • 3 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 1st, 2023

help-circle


  • Not sure if the /s was left off or this was a serious question.

    In the case it was a serious question, the first issue that comes to mind is when you seed clouds for one region, what happens to the next region downwind where the clouds would have rained without intervention? You are just moving the drought, there will still be a difference in the rain pattern somewhere.

    Seeding to generate more cloud cover at a global scale introduces a whole host of problems. Firstly, you lower the solar output which then means solar power generation will be less effective. That energy will need to be produced by some means, which right now fossil fuels would be the most likely to take up the deficit, increasing atmospheric carbon output. Then to compound problems further, the reduced solar radiation reaching the surface would have a number of impacts such as plant growth being slowed reducing their CO2 uptake, less moisture being evaporated for precipitation over land masses, wind patterns being changed, and wind speeds reduced which means even further reduction in renewable energy generation. So with today’s technology seeding clouds would end up compounding the issues in the long term and accelerate the already alarming changes.