This isn’t really shocking coming from a country that tries its utmost to control everything within its borders. Even the weather, apparently.
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In its ongoing attempts to make the Beijing games a spectacular showcase for its Olympic sized sprint from poor to powerhouse, China has set plans to control rainfall at the Games, especially during the most bombastic event of all — the opening ceremony. Meteorologists predict that there is a 46 percent chance of rainfall at the opening ceremony, and Beijing is going all out to make certain it doesn’t rain on their party. Authorities have set up rocket launchers at various locations outside the city to shoot silver iodide into clouds to coax them into releasing the rain before the clouds reach Beijing.
National Olympic Stadium, Beijing
The controversial procedure is called “cloud seeding”, and Beijing is adopting weather control measures on a war footing. Its cloud seeding arsenal contains more than 6000 artillery guns and 4000 rocket launchers to blast away rain. Western experts, however, are skeptical at how much weather control is really possible through this method.
All this drying up of the weather may actually increase the air pollution levels in the country. The International Olympic Committee has already warned Beijing that it will postpone some of the events if Beijing’s air pollution worsens.