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China has recently stated its intentions to produce rain over five dry provinces in the country’s northwest. Cloud seeding involves inserting a substance, usually silver iodine or dry ice, into a cloud. The goal of this is to alter the precipitation the cloud produces. The most common way for China has practiced cloud seeding in the past is to disperse silver iodide into the sky in the location which rain was desired. China hailed this result as a great success for their cloud seeding program; however, many scientists dispute claims that cloud seeding works at all.
If cloud seeding can be improved or studied more and proven to be effective then it be a great way to lessen the effects of droughts. is estimated to have cost the agricultural industry $550 million in 2016 and to have cost the total economy of California $2.7 billion in 2015. Cloud seeding could be used to dwindle the damage droughts have on the economies of areas which produce agricultural products. Another possible use of cloud seeding is to enhance the effort to replenish aquifers. The Ogallala Aquifer in the Central United States is one of these aquifers. Cloud seeding could prove to be key in preventing the exhaustion of the world’s aquifers, and helping to maintain current agricultural production.
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