The article merely stated that they would be performing "cloud seeding"... Usually that entails loading an aircraft with silver nitrate (Gods, I hope I got that right... too lazy to look it up) which are then dropped into clouds... these particles form "seeds" for water droplets to form around... encouraging rain formation.
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Not just typical of Communist regimes, typical of any expanding economy. The US did it (remember the dustbowl?... oh, okay, but it's a partial explanation), Brazil did it with most of the rainforests, and etcetera, etcetera, etceterae...
It's only in certain countries that the environment is elastic enough to bounce back... sadly, I think that deserts, once they reach a certain size, are self-propagating, aren't they?
Of course, this being the 21st Century, farmers should know better... but then again, if you don't even have TV and the state burned all your books forty years ago... what
do you know?
And yes, rain does clean the air. Used to be, the rainy season was the only time I could go out into the city without getting a horrible allergy from all the pollution. Thank God I don't have to live there.
