Show Date: May 17, 2006 
Pam Eastlick for THE DEEP on line

THE RAINMAKER
(With apologies to Billy Starbuck!)

Welcome to The Deep science and technology column where we cover topics from the deep sea to deep space and beyond. Join us each week on Newstalk K57 on Wednesday night from 7 to 8 p.m. for exciting live science expeditions or listen live on our web site www.thedeepradioshow.com

I don’t know about you, but I looked in the sky last month (it is by the way, wonderful, to have ‘looking at the sky’ as a part of your job description!) and was pretty much convinced that Anatahan had blown its top again. The sunsets were noticeably more colorful and there was an unnatural haze in the air that looked a whole lot like VOG (a contraction for Volcanic smOG).

Then our friends at the weather bureau told us that while Anatahan has been rumbling again, it wasn’t VOG that was causing all that haze; it was good old-fashioned SMOG, exported to us from our wonderful friends in mainland China.
China has a terrible smog problem; much worse than any ever seen in the United States. They don’t have the pollution control laws and they still burn a lot of coal and diesel. The largest human population on Earth creates a massive amount of all sorts of pollution.

They also have a blowing sand problem. The prevailing winds, which blow over the Gobi Desert, routinely drench Beijing in a hideous mixture of blowing sand and smog. Last month, Beijing had its worst sandstorm in years and some of that deadly mix eventually blew over our own island.

Many foreigners living in Beijing have complained about these gigantic storms and not so very long ago people who live on an island thousands of miles from Beijing were complaining about them too! Beijing will host the 2008 Olympics and they want to present the best possible face to the world when they do so.

So, the Chinese have decided to do something about them. According to a release earlier this month from the official Xinhua news agency, Chinese technicians have artificially generated heavy rainfall to wash a layer of sand and dust off Beijing. The Beijing Weather Modification Office responded to the problem with a major cloud seeding operation. "A total of 163 pieces of cigarette-like sticks containing silver iodide were burnt and seven rocket shells were launched in six districts and counties, which resulted in the heaviest rainfall in Beijing this spring," Xinhua said. Although the science of weather seeding is controversial and some doubt its effectiveness, China often seeds clouds in an effort to end droughts in the arid north.

The Beijing Weather Modification Office. Hmm . . . . And we’re downwind from these Frankensteins? You bet it’s controversial! One man’s water hose to get rid of all that sand is another man’s typhoon! Join us this week when our main topic will be weather modification and all its ramifications.The Deep is broadcast on Newstalk K57 every Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. You can also listen live from our web site www.thedeepradioshow.com. Join Jim Sullivan, Pam Eastlick, and Peter Melyan on the deepest radio show on Earth.