Earlier this month, on the topic of cloud seeding to "grow" rain in the dangerously parched United Arab Emirates, Esquire questioned whether the technology actually works:
The UAE has a rapidly growing economy and very little water to support it. According to the NCMS, with an average of 550 litres of water consumed every day by each man, woman and child, the country has the fourth highest demand for fresh water in the world. It's little wonder, therefore, that the government is aggressively pursuing alternative solutions like cloud seeding, said to be up to 30 times cheaper than desalination. The downside is, nobody knows if it actually works.
Cut to video footage of yesterday's massive flooding (see below) in the UAE, and we might have our answer. As reported by the BBC, "Very unusual heavy rain hit parts of the Gulf this week, with the United Arab Emirates hit particularly hard. The rain might have been enhanced by 'cloud seeding.'" And then again, there's always climate change.
