Make it Rain...On Venezuela

Most people might associate the saying, "Make it rain," with Rap and Hip Hop lyrics as a term meaning to throw out money. In Venezuela's case, they are using the quite literal meaning of the saying. In most of the world's history, I hope, Mother Nature has provided the Earth's surface with rain, but lately, I guess she has been a little stingy in her precipitation giving in Venezuela, which has led the country into a serious drought. In addition to the shortage of water, the drought is also causing an electricity crisis. Venezuela has become so desperate that they have started a method called cloud seeding, which is just bombing clouds, in order to get a few raindrops. I did not know one could even bomb a cloud. Does this method even work? The idea seems a little crazy, but if you are desperate, you will try anything. According to the article, the bomb is a mixture of silver iodide, dry ice, and salt. It is shot into "vertically growing cumulonimbus clouds to encourage raindrops to join together." Jose Gregorio Sottolano, the president of the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology says the method seems to be working even though he cannot calculate if or how much water levels have increased. Venezuela is in serious need of rainfall. Most of their power is generated from dams, which can become inefficient if the country's lakes and rivers have record lows. To top off their frustration, Venezuela is nearing the height of the dry season where clouds are hard to come by. Their hyrdo-grid could collapse by June. Unfortunately, cloud seeding is not guaranteed to work. President Hugo Chavez blames the electricity shortage on the drought while his critics blame the drought a little but also blame his inability to have diverse investments in electricity. They say Venezuela is too focused on hydro-power. Venezuela has learned that it is hard to mess with Mother Nature. The article Venezuela tries to make it rain was taken off Reuters.com though the original article was written by Charlie Devereux from the Global Post.