Summon the Rain (Article Critique Sample)

Summon the Rain
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Executive Summary
The paper summarizes the present state of knowledge in the area of convective cloud seeding. Summer programs specifically in the United States are mostly confined to the Great Plains while winter seeding programs are conducted primarily in the mountains of the western United States. Depending on the evaluations from several operational and research programs, convective cloud seeding has shown the ability to promote additional rainfall and reduce damage from hail. Regarding any technology, there are limitations: cloud seeding is not advocated as a drought.
Table of contents
TOC \o "1-2" \h \z \u Executive Summary PAGEREF _Toc397415435 \h 2
Table of contents PAGEREF _Toc397415436 \h 3
1.0 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc397415437 \h 4
2.0 Main statement PAGEREF _Toc397415438 \h 4
2.1 Baum’s main conclusions on cloud seeding PAGEREF _Toc397415439 \h 4
3.0 Main argument PAGEREF _Toc397415440 \h 5
3.1 Arguments PAGEREF _Toc397415441 \h 5
3.1.1 Inductive reasoning PAGEREF _Toc397415442 \h 5
3.1.2 Deductive logic PAGEREF _Toc397415443 \h 6
4.0 Author’s Epistemological paradigm PAGEREF _Toc397415444 \h 7
5.0 Acceptability, sufficiency and relevance of the article PAGEREF _Toc397415445 \h 7
6.0 Fallacy arguments PAGEREF _Toc397415446 \h 8
7.0 Ethical issues PAGEREF _Toc397415447 \h 9
8.0 Response to article’s editor PAGEREF _Toc397415448 \h 10
9.0 Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc397415449 \h 11
References PAGEREF _Toc397415450 \h 12
1.0 Introduction
The author of the article elaborates how the clouds are formed and how they form the rain. When tiny droplets of super cooled water strike with dust particles, they in turn form the ice pellets that melt along the way and fall to the ground as rain. According to Baum, there are several scientific methods of making the rain but the widely practiced method includes the injection of the clouds with silver iodide ‘seeds’ particles in which ice particle can form thus falling as rain.
2.0 Main statement
Scientists from different countries have been conductive experimental trials, analyzing statistics, and further searching to come up with specific methods and ideas that will lead to an increase and augmenting natural rainfall within dissimilar geographical regions. Despite extensive research past several years, statistical analysis of these weather and precipitation modification efforts of clouding seeding had not lead to the scientifically convincing evidence that is needed to reach pertinent and reasonably accurate conclusions about the fact effectiveness of cloud seeding efforts. This has been different with the recent advances in instrumentation technology and utilization of different statistical procedures to analyze cloud seeding information outcomes over the last several decades (Woodley & Rosenfeld, 2004).
2.1 Baum’s main conclusions on cloud seeding
According to the author, many people all over the world spend millions of dollars every time trying to control the rain and eliminate the drought. According to Baum (2014), millions of people are living in an enormous drought, with several countries undergoing some desertification levels. For instance, countries such as Australia have spent several years in a drought condition. To deal with the drought, Baum comments that few scientists are doing an experiment with zapping the atmosphere with ions to compress more moisture from it to form the rain; however, the primary method of increasing rainfall is pervading clouds with chemicals (Garstang et al., 2004). The significance of cloud seeding process attempts to increase precipitation over an area and provide some type of economic importance, for instance, as in the case of increased snow fall for ski resort or increased water availability to mainly farmers in drought regions and for irrigation of crops and plants.
3.0 Main argument
Baum argues that, the principle of cloud formation is very simple. Cloud that produce rain comprise micro-size water droplets whose temperature is below the freezing point, but that have not yet converted to ice due to lack of nuclei in which to form that is the dust particles of precisely the right size (Mather et al., 1997). The water droplets are light such that they cannot counter the updrafts keeping them aloft. Bernard Vonnegut, who is an atmospheric scientist at the general electric research laboratory in Schenectady, invented this technique in 1946. Vonnegut used silver iodide chemicals whose molecular structure mimics that of ice crystals to seed the clouds. Silver iodide works in theory and in practice as the pilots’ comments that they see clouds change as the chemical hits them. However, the question mostly asked is; would the cloud, which is seeded, have rained? According to Baum’s answer, there is no a procedure to run a perfect controlled method (Stith et al. 1986).
3.1 Arguments
3.1.1 Inductive reasoning
The cloud seeding technology lies on the principle of introducing artificial frost nuclei to the already-existing natural frost nuclei within clouds. Various nations, particularly those in arid and semi-arid areas, utilize this technology to attempt to raise the chances of rainfall (Reinking, 1996). Scientists from several countries such as Russia, China, U.S, Australia, Syria, Morocco, and other countries have demonstrated several experiments that artificial cloud seeding can increase the rain volume by about 5-20% over large regions and relatively for long durations (Shaefer, 1946).
Roelof Bruintjes, a researcher from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, presented an argument in that there is hope of building support for a research project to further investigate the importance and effectiveness of cloud seeding. He contended that new radar and satellite technologies and new airborne structures could be available to quantify the impacts of cloud seeding techniques (Hsie and Orville, 1980).
3.1.2 Deductive logic
According to scientists believe, it was a combination of controversy and uncertain outcomes that led the federal government to pull out of the weather – modification research in the 1980s. Bill Woodley, meteorologist, recalled running a promising cloud seeding experiment Florida that suddenly lost its funding in 1970s. Together with his colleagues, Woodley had predicted more despite increasing rainfall in their 13,000 km2 area by about 15 percent. Specifically to scientists, promising but ambiguous information is an argument for more intense investigation, not less. From that, a reasoning scientists would comment that it is clear that cloud seeding works under some circumstances, but how frequently do those circumstances occur in an area that makes economic sense, and how do you quantify it on the ground? Then to government officials, making fund decisions in a highly charged political environment, however, the conflicting information have been a reason to withdraw from an increasingly controversial enterprise. To some extent, the federal government comments that the hell with it, it is not worth it and got out of funding research altogether (Woodley and Rosenfeld, 2000).
4.0 Author’s Epistemological paradigm
Scientists have proved that there is a growing hope that modification of weather in the formation of cloud seeding could give more water for various activities such as agricultural uses. Whether in winter or summer, clouds are not perfectly at producing precipitation. In the winter, the challenge is that there are not adequate ice crystals. When droplets fall in liquid form, they evaporate. The suggestion is to raise the number of ice-forming particles (Wise, 2005). The method of cloud seeding has the effects of intensifying precipitation effectiveness of a cloud system by making water condense and then fall as raindrops to the ground.
5.0 Acceptability, sufficiency and relevance of the article
Cloud seeding has provided relief to the areas in which they experience drought. The raindrops formation facilitated through cloud seeding is essential to places that suffer from water scarcity. Apart from that benefit, most countries that are experiencing a severe drought use the process of cloud seeding to produce raindrop. The method has solved the water scarcity disaster. Cloud seeding is increasingly used for both water supply enhancement and weather damage reduction. In the western region, cloud seeding is done with the aim of increasing the overall precipitation into a watershed (Silverman & Sukarnjanaset, 2000). Elsewhere, specifically the high plain of the U.S and Canada, the method is used for suppression of the hail to reduce vandalism to crops and urban areas. Enthralling evidence suggests that seeding super cooled orographic clouds, those formed by airlifting covering mountains, can increase precipitation on the ground and cause critical increases in the snowpack (Axisa, 2004).
The method is effectively used to suppress some undesirable forms of precipitation such as hail that causes destruction to urban and to crops. This can alter storm clouds that otherwise would produce hail and some other forms of frozen precipitation. The compounds applied in cloud seeding produce few adverse effects to the environment. Silver iodide, which is the most common used compound has a structure very similar to ice and has no known harmful impacts to the environment and its surroundings (Detwiler, Langerud, & DePue, 2005). To many people, cloud seeding is a divine gift. To intelligent people, the right to water is fundamental yet it is taken by a handful of extremely selfish industrialists. In almost all nations, such people who seek to achieve the maximum profits at any cost within the shortest possible time, and are causing high environmental p...