[cornholio]

Clouds are quite cheap. Most of them drop most of their water over areas that would not significantly suffer from a marginal reduction of rainfall (the oceans, the arctics, mountain ranges).

And a dryer average atmosphere should be partially compensated by increased evaporation from the oceans. Overall, this technology should be applicable on a continental scale before it shows any measurable effect on other areas.

[ethagknight]

A far more accurate response is “we have no idea and no way of knowing there wouldn’t be major negative ramifications but it would seem like...”

My biggest gripe with climate science in popular media is the presentation of sparse data and unproven models as fact that should be take at face value. Milking clouds in one region will have an impact elsewhere, that’s the only guarantee.

[thaumasiotes]

> areas that would not significantly suffer from a marginal reduction of rainfall (the oceans, the arctics, mountain ranges)

Agreed as to the ocean and the arctic, but precipitation over mountain ranges is generally recovered by lower-altitude communities when the water eventually flows down to them.

Snowmelt has been a major source of water historically.

[eloff]

Also the artics are essentially cold deserts, they don't get much precipitation and there is likely very little that could trace its origin to the hot deserts of the world.

[Cogito]

That's not really true.

Parts of the arctics are definitely deserts, but that is not true for all of the arctic regions.

Looking at the relevant parts of wikipedia [0] and [1], "annual precipitation averaged over the whole planet is about 1000 mm" while "parts of southeast Greenland [recieve] over 1200 mm". Antarctica has a lot less precipitation in general, but there are still large parts of it that are not classified as desert.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_the_Arctic#Precipit...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Antarctica#Precipit...

[ianai]

Here’s hoping it somehow aids in carbon sequestration tech development...