CLOUDSEEDZ

So, the north of China has been a little, well, dry recently, and may be deep in the throes of a regional climate cycle that could make droughts frequent for at least another five years.  I mean, who doesn't go through a, you know, dry spell every now and then, right? 

But while so many of us simply accept (or even appease) problems in our lives, some of us step up to the plate and do something to make things right again, like going totally apeshit for cloud seeding:

Cloud seeding, as Li's work is termed, is increasingly common in China, where a chronic drought grips the North and hailstones ruin countless acres of crops nationwide every year.

"Our main job," he says with the focus of a seasoned field commander, "is the prevention of hail ... If there is hail heading for Beijing, this is the last line of defense."

Li commands three installations like Xiangshan, or Fragant Hills, in northwestern Beijing where, when the clouds are thick and when he's sure there are no planes overhead, he opens fire on the sky with special rockets to make it rain. In the past, Chinese emperors sacrificed oxen and sheep to draw rains from the heavens. Today, Chinese statistics show that cloud seeding, which can also be done by aircraft, may be somewhat more effective.

Seeding has been used for decades, but it has grown quickly since the 1990s. China suffered its worst drought in more than a decade in 2001.

From 1995 to 2003, China spent 2.2 billion yuan ($266 million) on cloud seeding nationwide and now there are 35,275 people in the business of making it rain, China Meteorological Administration statistics show.

In 2003 alone, the state spent about 413 million yuan to attack clouds, using 30 planes, 3,800 rockets and 6,900 artillery shells, statistics showed.

The administration says cloud seeding added more than 7.4 trillion cubic feet of precipitation from 1995 to 2003.

Zhang Qiang, deputy director general of the Beijing Weather Modification Office, said cloud seeding had increased rainfall by about 12.5 percent in China's capital.

Now, it should be noted that, although these kinds of weather modification programs are operating in 24 countries around the world and 10 states in the US, no hard scientific evidence exists for their efficacy (PDF! good info on the current state of research).  However, it should be further noted that the lack of verifiable proof of cloud seeding technology is mostly due to the natural variability of precipitation - even on a small scale, climate is so hard to model reliably that it's proven impossible to construct verifiable experiments to quantify what results, if any, are produced by seeding.  The cloud seeding industry is pretty convinced of its efficacy, and the Chinese are so convinced they're fighting over it:

The five cities of Pingdingshan, Zhumadian, Luohe, Xuchang and Zhoukou have all been suffering from drought, but were finally blessed with rain as a result of cloud seeding on Saturday, the China Daily reported.

However, while Pingdingshan received more than 100mm of rainfall, less than 30mm fell on Zhoukou.

One Zhoukou official accused Pingdingshan of intercepting clouds that would probably have drifted to other places.

"They (Pingdingshan) were still launching rockets to make rain when they already had rain falling," he is reported as saying.

They're also so convinced that they're considering expanding its role to reduce energy consumption: 

This year, some city planners are talking about training their rain guns on another enemy - the energy shortage that is hobbling China as its electricity-producing capacity struggles to keep up with the booming economy.

The idea: Make it rain during the dog days of summer to bring down the temperature and hopefully lower electricity consumption. Shanghai plans to give it a try, and the idea has been broached in Beijing but not yet pursued.

 The technique was tried last year in the southern province of Jiangxi, but the results were not publicized, said Chen Zhiyu, head of the national weather modification office.

OK, OK, little crazy!  Still, you gotta admit, those Commies have some cojones subjecting the rain cycle to the will and greater glory of The People, right?