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“Even if cloud seeding does succeed at increasing precipitation, environmental activists are concerned about its impact. One scientist addressing those concerns is geochemist Shawn Benner at Boise State University. “The near impossibility of detecting a silver iodide signal in snowpack after seeding attests to its low environmental risk,” Benner says.
Natural background levels of silver iodide in snow are about 1 to 2 parts per trillion, and after seeding, researchers look for levels from 4 to 20 ppt. Although silver is toxic to aquatic organisms in large doses, the levels found in surface water after seeding are well below the toxic threshold of 50,000 ppt, Benner says. “Nevertheless, if the practice of cloud seeding intensifies at a larger scale, silver toxicity and other environmental issues could become a concern,” Jackson says.
Aside from the toxicity of silver, some cloud-seeding critics raise concerns about messing with the balance that Mother Nature holds on the atmosphere. The amount of moisture in the atmosphere is determined by the balance between evaporation and precipitation. If cloud seeding is done on a large scale, it might lead to increased evaporation from locations outside the seeding area, Jackson says. “It’s obvious that rain falling in one place would have fallen somewhere else, but the broader question is, who, if anyone, would have seen the rain and what else might it affect?” he adds.”
https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i22/Does-cloud-seeding-really-work.html
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