Aug. 6, 2008 | This week, days before Friday's opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, cannons and rocket launchers by the thousands will be trained on the Chinese skies. In the cross hairs: the clouds.
This is latest of China's many efforts to control the weather. China is probably the world's largest practitioner of cloud seeding, spending about $90 million a year. Last April, it claimed a major weather victory after seeded clouds deposited a centimeter of snow on the Tibetan mountains. Now, eager to ensure rain comes before -- not during -- the Olympics, the Beijing Weather Modification Office plans to seed the clouds that float by beforehand, hoping to wash the pollution from the air and wring out any event-delaying precipitation.
