Hacker News Reader

Comment by AlexC04 | Hacker News Reader

     Under the guidelines of the Clean Water Act by the 
     EPA, silver iodide is considered a hazardous 
     substance, a priority pollutant, and as a toxic 
     pollutant.(10) Some industries have learned this all 
     too well. ... If the toxicity manifests in pollution 
     and illnesses, the effects may not be reversible ...

http://www.ranches.org/cloudseedingharmful.htm

So.... this doesn't seem like the best idea.

View on HN

Interesting. Cloud seeding using Silver Iodide is still in use in Canada, as part of the Alberta Hail Suppression Project[0]. These little differences between Canada and the US always surprise me.

[0] https://globalnews.ca/news/3514775/alberta-severe-weather-su...

Regardless of the merits or demerits of this particular scheme, I admire the spirit. With a fraction of such confidence we could revive the Neanderthals, build an asteroid defence system, clean up the oceans, on and on. Instead we're not trying much. We feel ashamed... because... why?

At what cost? Some cultures do not value the health and life of the every day person. I don't think that is something to be honored or respected.

While clearly true, I think we'd have to rephrase that as "all cultures" - here in the US people are sleeping on the sidewalk outside my office. In the PRC, they're willing to gamble on geoengineering which could poison people (just not people in power). I can't think of any current society that really values every member - but we can keep working towards that goal...

>I think we'd have to rephrase that as "all cultures"

Absolutely agree, but here we have the freedom to protest the government itself, and do so openly for as long as we need to to make a change. They literally have a dictator for life that just came into power weeks ago.

Scandinavian societies are pretty good at looking after everyone "in" the society, though for outsiders things can be hit and miss.

Well, it's that spirit in the first place that gave us such polluted oceans.

The oceans are polluted mostly from landfills in about 12 Asian and African cities blowing plastic debris into them.

Wasn't the spirit in question the one where you do reckless things without any thoughts for the future?

Unintended consequences.

Communist party of china has a pretty bad history of large unintended consequences from their actions.

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy#Effects

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution#Policy_and...

China seems to be somewhere that is happy with short term solutions without considering longer term impacts.

compared to the rest of the world?

Yeah I'd 's/China/Humans/'. I'm referring to the fact that (mostly) everyone emits CO2 with cars, without caring about longer term impacts on global climate, sea rise, increase of hurricane frequency and intensity, etc.

> (mostly) everyone emits CO2 with cars, without caring about longer term impacts on global climate, sea rise, increase of hurricane frequency and intensity, etc.

I don't think that's accurate. Most? countries regulate CO2. European countries do, for example.

According to this graph, car seems to be dominant in europe too. [2014] Of course Europe is doing better and I'd like to see more trains in Canada and the US.

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/...

who else is shooting silver iodide into the sky?

Well the United States did from 1962-1983.[0]

Unfortunately humans learn best from negative consequences, rather than from historical observation. Most bad things have already been tried before.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Stormfury

Doesn't sound like there were any major negative consequences - just that it was ineffective at stopping hurricanes and cyclones.

I think it's a developmental stage. Do it and then stop it. See those (ex-)factories near major US cities?

China has stopped of pollution already, after ruining the manufacturing base in richer countries.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com