The record rainfall and flooding in Dubai that has claimed the lives of at least 20 people this week directly followed government cloud seeding missions, according to reports.
Cloud-seeding is a form of geoengineering using planes or cannons to shoot particles into clouds to attract more moisture and increase rainfall.
The UAE government, which has practiced cloud seeding since 2002 to enhance the desert country’s water security, reportedly launched at least seven cloud seeding missions on Monday and Tuesday, immediately before record levels of rain hit Dubai. The government’s National Center of Meteorology has denied this claim, however.
Whether or not cloud-seeding missions immediately preceded this week’s rain and flooding, the government’s cloud-seeding endeavors are undoubtedly at least partly responsible for the country’s recent increase in rain. The UAE has experienced a significant rise in rainfall in the past few years, and a report in the journal Nature predicts that precipitation is expected to increase by 15 percent to 30 percent in the coming years. This week’s rainfall was the country’s heaviest since record-keeping began in 1949.
The Dubai disaster is certain to be used by critics as an example of the dangers inherent in man’s attempts to alter nature’s course through geoengineering. At present, government-backed geoengineering experiments are taking place across the globe, largely intended to combat ‘global warming.’ Earlier this month, Tennessee became the first state in the U.S. to approve legislation banning geoengineering.
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