podgypossum

I have just watched a very, very interesting doco on TV about the Australian drought and how to deal with it. They were discussing the concept of "cloud seeding" heres a link to explain what it is

http://www.atmos-inc.com/weamod.html

I had never heard of this before, (i suppose loads of others have)

Apparantly it has bee used in Texas for many years and Israel is making great leaps in research with it... why doesnt Oz get into this?

bondipom

I believe the CSIRO is looking into it but you still need the clouds to see. A better idea than Alan Jones Suggestion of tilting the continent to reverse the river flow.

podgypossum

Yes, but as they were saying in the programme, there is ample cloud most of the time ( we get a fair bit go by here) but no rain falls and it wthers away to nothing.

I hope the tilting comment was tongue in cheek!!!

Trevglas

When I was working down in newcastle NSW, the guys I worked with came up with THE perfect droughtbusting techniques.

One guy, who lived on a rural property reported the heavens opened the day after he bought water to fill his tanks (happened to him 4 times in a row), and another guy reckoned it always poured 30 min afte painting the outside of his house!

The last I heard the second guy was going around to paint the first guys tanks!

Trev

podgypossum

Hmmm.... how about we all boil our kettles at the same time to make plenty of steam to rise!! ?


But seriously, why isnt more being talked about this? Oz is in serious water trouble, yet there seems to be very little talk in the media about resolving the problem.

Amazulu

The Soviets pioneered this technique. When they had their mayday parade in Moscow & it looked like it was going to rain, specially converted Air force bombers would seed the clouds with (I think) concrete powder, causing the clouds to drop their rain away from Moscow, thereby not 'raining on their parade'.

Megalania

"Cloud seeding was first demonstrated by Schaefer from the General Electric Laboratories on 13 November 1946. The first case of documented man-made rain occurred near Bathurst, Australia in February in 1947 by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization – Australia). Ongoing research led to the commencement in Tasmania of the first cloud seeding experiment by Hydro Tasmania and CSIRO in 1964."

Hydro Tasmania: Cloud Seeding

Amazulu

I stand corrected.

Bix

No-one likes a smart ass.
But we'll make an exception of you Meg

CHnJ

The thing I don't understand is why it seems acceptable for anyone to drill down and pull water out from the underlying water table. There's no regulation on this, and I would have thought this would be the measure of last resort ... a bit like setting off on a long car journey with your petrol guage warning light on.

Megalania

"In proclaimed areas, it is illegal to divert water from a watercourse or groundwater aquifer without a licence."

Regulation and Licensing (WA)

CHnJ

lol ... at some time I'm going to set up a general knowledge quiz designed to test good googlers : )

Well done