{"id":207690,"date":"2022-09-24T20:47:34","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T15:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=207690"},"modified":"2022-09-24T20:47:34","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T15:17:34","slug":"weather-modifications-by-china-need-more-discussions-on-its-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/weather-modifications-by-china-need-more-discussions-on-its-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"Weather modifications by China need more discussions on its ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cWeather modifications by China need more discussions on its ethics\u201d <\/strong>published in the <strong>Down to Earth <\/strong>magazine on <strong>24th September 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Environment.GS1- Physical Geography<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>&#8211; Weather modification by modern technology<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; The article explains the scale of weather modification activities by China. It also discusses the social and ethical consequences of weather modification.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What makes cloud-seeding in China different from others?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Other countries have deployed cloud seeding to deal with water scarcity, ecological crisis and food security.<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s case is unique in terms of <strong>scale, scope and ambitions<\/strong>. China does not only use the technology for ecological and environmental concerns. It also uses it for promoting state interest in a broader sense.<\/p>\n<p>China is interested in using weather modification for mega-events. It used this technology during the 2008 Olympic games.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What is our level of knowledge about its harmful consequences?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Cloud-seeding has two dimensions \u2014 physical and social science.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of research has been done about the physical dimension, although it is debatable. Scientists have different views.<\/p>\n<p>The social science dimension deserves more attention. For example, excess snow produced from cloud seeding can trigger a human-induced disaster.<\/p>\n<p>We also need more space for discussions on the social consequences and ethical issues.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What is the scale of weather modification in China?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>It has been practicing weather modification since 1959.<\/p>\n<p>China has been conducting regular cloud seeding around Shiyangin Hebei Province to supply water to the Greater Beijing Region.<\/p>\n<p>Cloud seeding is regularly done in Shiyang to produce enough water to transfer to Beijing.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Has this created social problems within China?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Weather modification is done for many different purposes. Sometimes it is done for Beijing\u2019s interests and other times to fulfil the expectations of local citizens.<\/p>\n<p>When disasters happen due to weather modification in the former, it raises a few questions. Who can be blamed for it, government or nature.<\/p>\n<p>It needs more research to know about its social consequences.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What is the scope of having an international organisation to control these activities?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Weather modification occurs in the air, where there are no boundaries. This impacts international politics.<\/p>\n<p>We need to discuss if a global law or organisation is needed to solve the problem.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Doesweather modification programmes paving the way for solar geoengineering?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Cloud seeding is also part of geoengineering. To deal with climate change, we have two strategies: Mitigation and adaptation. Both cloud seeding and solar reengineering are adaptation strategies.<\/p>\n<p>Reports suggest that China is doing intensive solar geoengineering research. One strategy is solar radiation management, which reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth, lowering the temperature very quickly.<\/p>\n<p>We need extensive research to study its consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cWeather modifications by China need more discussions on its ethics\u201d published in the Down to Earth magazine on 24th September 2022. Syllabus: GS3- Environment.GS1- Physical Geography Relevance&#8211; Weather modification by modern technology News&#8211; The article explains the scale of weather modification activities by China. It also discusses&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/weather-modifications-by-china-need-more-discussions-on-its-ethics\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Weather modifications by China need more discussions on its ethics<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10504,10514,216],"class_list":["post-207690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-down-to-earth","tag-dte","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704878189},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207690\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}