For Opening Ceremony, Beijing Told Rain to Go Away
by Alex Pasternack, Beijing, China on 08.10.08
What other government in the world, for what other reason, would be able to "guarantee" the weather? One of the biggest feats of China's spectacular opening ceremony on Friday wasn't inside the stadium. As those of us inside the Bird's Nest feared rain -- and secretly, because of the heavy heat and humidity, prayed for it -- the city's meteorological bureau peppered approaching clouds with over 1000 silver-iodide rockets. That triggered intense showers outside the city and preempted a rainfall on China's parade.
It was one of the more fitting, if unacknowledged, touches to the super-sized ceremony, which after all was about China's human daring and ingenuity.
Ever since Mao Zedong, who declared that "man must defeat the heavens," the country has used cloud-seeding mostly to alleviate drought. Though NASA plays with the technique to provide good weather for shuttle launches and Los Angeles and Wyoming have relaunched their own programs, Friday's ceremony may have marked the world's most critical and singular rainmaking mission, one which scientists had in their sights for years: clearing the skies for the world's largest event.
While the city was setting off 33,866 fireworks, it also "fired a total of 1,104 rain dispersal rockets from 21 sites in the city between 4 pm and 11:39 pm on Friday, which prevented a rain belt from moving toward the stadium," bureau chief Guo Hu said, according to China Daily.
Just as the rockets were slamming the clouds, the opening ceremony reached a middle section, "Nature." At the center of the stadium children were painting a landscape and singing a song:
The air is warming The ice cap is melting Land becomes smaller Birds are vanishingWe plant trees
We sow seeds
The earth turns green
The sky is blue indeed...
Even before it won its Olympic bid in 2001, China poured millions of RMB into its rainmaking project, hoping to trigger smog-clearing showers, provide water to dry land and, for the opening ceremony, keep storm clouds at bay. Though there are widespread doubts about how effective cloud-seeding is -- even some officials have admitted their techniques remain un-proven -- Beijing says it is able to control some of the weather some of the time. And while the city is known for heavy summer rain, in the past two years you could sometimes tell when a sudden downpour was coming based on the visiting schedule of IOC officials.
Besides concerns about the chemicals used (safe, officials insist), and the occasional cement bag falling from a seeding plane, there are larger questions about how cloud-seeding can negatively effect weather patterns, and how it serves to “wash away not just the dirt, but people's memory” of the dirt, as Wen Bo told me in 2006.
Given the city's and the country's environmental issues, techniques like forced rain, drastic car bans, factory shutdowns and general sugar coating only obscure the bigger problems, creating apathy among officials and citizens and drawing money away from sustainable projects, like improving irrigation or cleaning up factories. I've long thought, honestly, that one of the best things about living here was the feeling of frustration over pollution, in a way that few other places can offer. The more intense a problem, the more motivated you are to work on fixing it, right?
Nevertheless, Beijing can't simply keep press a button whenever it wants to clear the skies of smog or stop rain. Right? (The next guarantee of the weather will likely come with the Olympics closing ceremony on the 23rd of August.)
The great irony of course is that whether cloud seeding works or not, part of China's reason for doing it is to counteract an even more effective weather modification project -- engineered by its legions of cars, factories and power plants.
See our previous posts on rainmaking here and here. In Plenty, Tom Scocca goes deeper.
Also see this recent Boston Globe article on cloud seeding.
Also on TH:
Is the IOC Helping Beijing Hide Its Pollution?
The chance for rain at the opening ceremony was 50%. The chances for rain after the dispersal rockets were launched remained at 50%. Maybe China has gotten so used to shooting at people for disobedience they've aimed towards the clouds.
The communist government really has no regard for people and the environment - only money it seems. Since this is their "coming out party" shouldn't the world expect some environmental regulation outside of the Beijing Olympic stage, or is that just a foolish thought?
If it were just a one-off it wouldn't be so bad.
China's approach to the environment leaves a lot to be desired... sadly, I don't expect much improvement.
Actually, shooting rainclouds and preventing hail is quite common all over the world in places like commercial orchards and such.
Mmm, the chance for rain at the opening ceremony was 80% actually, according to the WEATHER FORCAST.
And it's still raining in Beijing these days. So u can tell we dont't always tell the rain to go away.
I hope bad weather will not cause U much trouble in the opening ceremony in 2012 London, TRULY, REALLY.
By the way, by 1950s, China is still an agricultural country, but Western countries had destroyed the globe well enough.
Now it's a time U start making up for what you'v done, so behave yourselves, and give China time to catch U up, ecnomically and environmentally.
Hey folks, before you start pointing the finger at China, have you looked up at our own American skies? It is more apparent if you live in open places, but those grid patterns in the skies are NOT a coincidental flight plan of commercial airliners. Neither are they what you might call 'con trails'. Con trails are water vapor and evaporate. These things linger for a very long time, and disperse like spiled milk across the sky.