Dubai f**ks with nature

[hyphen]

Dubai are sending drones up to the clouds to tickle them into producing rain.

They built a city in the desert, which was stupid enough, and now they are getting even crazier. Imagine if ever country starts to do this? We will have wars over rain...

papers said:

The United Arab Emirates is creating its own rain using drones that fly into clouds and unleash electrical charges to beat the sweltering 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) heat.

The rain is formed using drone technology that gives clouds an electric shock to 'cajole them' into clumping together and producing precipitation.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9809529/D...

[Monkeylegend]

They could import some rain from Japan.

[Zetec-S]

It's not a new concept:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding

[Man-At-Arms]

Perhaps they can be used at F1 races to make some tracks a bit more spicy

[hyphen]

Zetec-S said:

It's not a new concept:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding

Thanks for that. You learn something new everyday.

So Dubai isn't doing anything new. But it is still a desert and they should consider moving, although appreciate it's evolved over a very long time.

Edited by hyphen on Wednesday 21st July 12:05

[768]

Moving Dubai?

[pquinn]

Natural extension of this is various countries in the region start doing it along their borders to even more explicitly steal the clouds and rain from whichever neighbour they hate this week.

It'd be cheaper and easier than some of the other things they already do just to spite each other.

[UnfortunateUserName]

They’ve been doing it for years. Would you consider this different from building damns on rivers, creating reservoirs along natural water-courses etc? That’s been going on for a lot longer!!

[Wills2]

This thread is the definition of an old man shouting at a cloud.

Why don't people a, know this stuff or b do a quick Google before ranting?

[Mr E]

768 said:

Moving Dubai?

That would need a serious tugboat. Perhaps more than one.

[mmm-five]

Dubai seem to import everything...including sand for building as their own is too fine/smooth.

[Evanivitch]

If you think that's nuts, you should understand the extremes that Qatar have gone to develop a domestic agricultural industry since the Saudi blockade.

The country has gone from importing just about all produce, to approaching a self sustainable limit for basic products including milk and eggs.

Makes you think what can be achieved with deep pockets, engineering and an unexpected change in circumstances.

[UnfortunateUserName]

mmm-five said:

Dubai seem to import everything...including sand for building as their own is too fine/smooth.

Doesn’t surprise me - desert sand is very smooth and round-shaped so doesn’t hold together like beach-sand for example that is very angular. I know I’d rather have in my concrete!!

[mike74]

I know attempts at chemical cloud seeding have been around for a long time, I wouldn't know just how successful or otherwise they have been, I've never heard of this electrical cloud seeding though.

I find it very hard to believe that a few drones can carry and discharge enough electrical energy to result in the formation of huge clouds producing monsoon like torrential downpours as shown in the pics.

Edited by mike74 on Wednesday 21st July 12:57

[768]

Evanivitch said:

If you think that's nuts, you should understand the extremes that Qatar have gone to develop a domestic agricultural industry since the Saudi blockade.

The country has gone from importing just about all produce, to approaching a self sustainable limit for basic products including milk and eggs.

Makes you think what can be achieved with deep pockets, engineering and an unexpected change in circumstances.

They're all at it. Saudi claims to have the world's largest integrated dairy farm. The cows there have more spent on cooling systems for them than I do.

When they realised they were using up their finite underground water reserves they switched some of their crop production for the cows to California, shipping it around the world... California now realise they're running out of their finite underground water reserves.

[liner33]

Well China and India are heading towards a water war, i suspect there will be more as many parts of the world are going to become uninhabitable in future years due to climate change

https://asiatimes.com/2021/01/china-risks-a-himala...

[Phud]

liner33 said:

Well China and India are heading towards a water war, i suspect there will be more as many parts of the world are going to become uninhabitable in future years due to climate change

https://asiatimes.com/2021/01/china-risks-a-himala...

Or that with population growth not enough emphasis is placed of fresh water and just taking it out of the ground means where replenishment is poor humans are trying to sustain too many.

More storage rather than climate change or removal direct form subsurface aquifers

[mmm-five]

UnfortunateUserName said:

Doesn’t surprise me - desert sand is very smooth and round-shaped so doesn’t hold together like beach-sand for example that is very angular. I know I’d rather have in my concrete!!

I was working there - project management in the construction industry (we were on the Yas Marina / Al Raha contract in Abu Dhabi) - until the crash of 2008, but I was luckier than most as I was on a day rate + expenses and hadn't reached the point where I was required to become full-time and relocate.

Others had literally just bought property in Dubai/Abu Dhabi (we got good discounts on some of the properties we built) and sold up their UK properties. They couldn't sell their Dubai/Abu Dhabi properties as the market had crashed, so didn't have the cash to buy into the collapsing UK market either.

[StescoG66]

Surely with rising sea levels, desalination plants are the answer?

[Mikebentley]

Isn’t it the case that there is the same amount of water on the planet today as there has always been? It’s just in different form and place. I know this is an over simplified explanation.