ARTIFICIAL RAIN
A solution to fight drought?

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Making it rain… artificially?

The process isn't new. It's actually quite well-developed 😤

France, Russia, China, India, Mexico, Thailand, and the Emirates have already used it, many times over.

This process has a name: cloud seeding.

The process: Releasing chemicals (aerosols, silver iodide, liquid nitrogen, etc.) into clouds to act as particles for water vapor to cling to. This forms droplets that merge, get heavy, and fall: resulting in rain.

In France, cloud seeding with silver iodide is used to prevent hail damage to high-value agricultural crops like vineyards and orchards.

This technique has been around for a long time, so why shouldn't we use it to fight drought?

❌ Altering natural cycles is never a great idea: we can't yet determine the environmental consequences of the practice, but if the rain isn't falling on its own, it might not be a coincidence 🤔

❌ Theft of natural resources: If one country artificially makes it rain over its territory, isn't it stealing that rain from a neighbor? For example: if France stimulates clouds to make it rain within its borders, Germany might be left with fewer clouds and therefore less rain for its own country… A new issue of inequality is highly likely to emerge.

❌ The CO2 emissions from the planes required for cloud seeding show that it is not a sustainable solution for tackling the consequences of climate change.

❌ Spraying chemicals into clouds doesn't seem like an ideal way to protect the environment, either.

🔍 While it may not be the main concern: according to an interview with François Bouttier, a researcher at Météo France, for Reporterre magazine, the concentrations of chemicals used in cloud seeding are not high enough to pose a real risk to humans or the environment.

❌ Questionable effectiveness: the success rate of cloud seeding is estimated at 10%, so the method is not an effective way to combat drought.

👉🏻 The use of such technologies highlights the climate emergency and the need to find sustainable solutions to fight drought and climate change, rather than implementing risky, half-baked fixes.

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MEGA-BASINS
Water: a commodity or a common good?

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Water: a commodity or a common good?

This is one of the many issues raised by mega-basins. Let us explain ⬇️

🔍 What is a mega-basin?

It is a massive reservoir designed to pump water from groundwater or streams during the winter to irrigate crops in the summer.

🎯 The goal? Faced with increasingly long and frequent droughts, mega-basins are intended to allow farmers to water their crops year-round.

What are the consequences of such a practice? ⬇️

❌ Commodification and privatization of water: Take the Deux-Sèvres region, for example: 16 basins are being built, but only 6% of the department's farmers are connected to them.

🔍 What about the others? Supporters of mega-basins claim that groundwater levels will be preserved, allowing non-connected farmers to extract water in the summer. However, winter droughts have limited groundwater resources, and almost all the water will be pumped into the mega-basins. Worse yet: if drought conditions become too severe, restrictions will be imposed, and they will only apply to the farmers who aren't connected.

❌ Water waste: Losses due to evaporation in mega-basins are estimated to be between 20% and 60%, according to Christian Amblard, honorary research director at the CNRS and a specialist in water and hydrobiological systems. (Greenpeace) Instead of saving water, we're wasting it—doesn't make much sense, does it? 😤

Worse: The quality of the stored water is a problem; stagnant water is a breeding ground for bacteria and micro-algae. Will we need even more chemicals to fix that?

❌ Biodiversity at risk: Pumping and storing water in artificial reservoirs disrupts the recharging of groundwater and deprives surrounding ecosystems of natural water runoff. The result: even drier land and living things deprived of a VITAL resource.

❌ Promoting intensive farming: Mega-basins are primarily designed to irrigate water-intensive cereal crops used for industrial livestock. It’s completely backwards; instead of supporting agriculture that protects biodiversity and saves water, we’re building reservoirs that destroy ecosystems to sustain environmentally harmful crops. 😵‍💫

Above all, mega-basins are a maladaptation to climate change. As Nicolas Girod puts it: "This basin model doesn't lead to a shift in agricultural practices; it simply allows the continuation of a model whose devastation—the disappearance of small farmers, the consolidation of farms—is already well known. We’re just giving them the means to keep going as they are."

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