Hi readers!
Hope you like the earlier blog: “Borrow vision from China if you have to”. You must also have found the reason(s) of why I said that, but you might not have realized why Chinese have said what mentioned above ?
“We don’t want to just write theoretical essays on Sky Rivers rather, we want to write essays on the ground”.
To understand why they said this, lets first explain the difference between “sky river: and “atmospheric river.”
Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are flowing columns of condensed water vapors that transport most water vapors outside the tropics. They occur as narrow corridor or filament of concentrated hydrosphere which is:
(a combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of a planet, minor planet, or natural satellite and can be in the form of liquid, vapor, or ice. On the surface of the earth, it is in the form of liquid while above the surface or in the atmosphere it can be in the form of vapors, and ice).
Atmospheric rivers begin as warm water storms over the Pacific Ocean, where evaporation creates a high concentration of moisture in the air. Predominant winds give ARs their distinctive shape. In addition to being long, fast and packed with moisture, ARs can behave erratically by changing direction unpredictably. (You can read one of my earlier blogs on this subject “Can Atmospheric River connect Asia and North America”? to know how it happened).
For Chines however, distinction between the well-known concept of atmospheric rivers is, flowing columns of condensed water vapors that transport most water vapors outside the tropic and that of sky river is that it is“highly structured water conveyance systems at the regional and global levels”.
This distinction was widely criticized by atmospheric scientists and others who all believe that “sky river concept is no different from that of atmospheric rivers because it is just a big fancy exciting new name used to obtain a large sum of funding”. Interesting, isn’t it?
(You can well imagine who such people are and why they are criticizing the way they do?)
However, the goal of asserting Sky River as a distinct concept was apparently seems to confirm an equivalency between the atmosphere and the ground to apply the same types of techniques used on earth for making the best and most effective use of the situation and resource. Sky River would thus be ‘aerial corridor ‘to be used for South North Water Transport Project (SNWTP).
The project leader of SNWTP on sky river said, “think that sky river is a new concept through which atmospheric water could be utilized for national economic development, construction of ecological civilization, national security, and geopolitics”.
To him, Sky river is a Promethean concept in the sense that it is irreligious and materialistic in believe and action. Since the traditional water management techniques have reached their limit for dealing with China’s absolute water shortage hence, it is only through promethean thinking that materialization (a process of coming into being) of cloud water resources through weather modification is possible which will act as a new source of water to counter the “throttling” of surface water resources.
At present, the rate of conversion of natural precipitation is very low. If a new inter-basin water transfer model is developed through the use of cloud water resources, there is a hope that problem of the arid climate would be solve.
It is relatively simple and easy to modify the temporal and spatial distribution of natural precipitation through human intervention into the weather. Spatial water transfer can be conducted between the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, forming a new inter-basin transfer model, which would greatly ameliorate North China’s serious shortage of water resources and enormously promoting the coordinated development of society, economy, and the environment.
For the Yellow River to flow continuously, we have been working for 10 years and we also keep working for next10 years to see if we can find a new way to solve the water shortage of the Yellow River?
That is the resolve (we possess this) that I can only whish if we could use it the way we did earlier.
It is also plainly stated in one of the project leader’s co-authored papers (Wang et al. 2018: 110) on introducing the goal of the Sky River concept that, “we proposed a concept of Sky River to explain how the atmospheric water could be utilized.”
The 2018 paper (Wang et al. 2018: 110) by the project leader of SNWTP and his colleagues (introducing the concept to the Anglophone: English literature) is similar in its framing of clouds as atmospheric water resources which should be coupled with conventional surface water resources for “water resource formation infrastructure”. To achieve this, the authors used shallow water (5 feet deep or less) equations (used to model Ross by waves which are planetary vorticity waves that propagate westward at a rate of about 0.6–0.8 m s−1, and can travel across the Pacific in 6 to7 months and Kelvin waves which are special gravity waves that propagate eastward with a speed of approximately 2 to3 m s−1, and can travel across the Pacific Ocean in 2 months) that are also used for modelling dynamics of flows in the rivers, the ocean, and the atmosphere, and extrapolate from there to develop a new vision of the water cycle (Wang et al. 2018: 109, 117). The assertion that sky rivers are generalized phenomena approachable through familiar fluid mechanics is, in turn, key to developing a novel strategy in developing atmospheric water resources by joint management of atmospheric and surface water resources.
This scientific endeavor is aimed at allowing surface and atmospheric waters to be modelled and managed together in the service of China’s ecological security.
Why is a Promethean Dream of a nation criticized?
The problem is that Sky River team is made up entirely of hydrologists, with no atmospheric scientist or meteorological expertise yet the concept and the project was advertised and discussed so convincingly that it appeared better than it really was. Perhaps the idea behind this hype was to clarify the concept of Promethean thinking embedded within the state sponsored scientific endeavors.
Chinese think that if the project appeared skeptical, scientists and the team behind the project will keep working on it silently. The failure (if any) will be countered with alternative of hundreds of silver iodide burners placed already on the Tibetan Plateau as a part of civilian and military bureaucratic setup working on weather modification.
Lesson learned,
Keep dreaming as the dreams do come true.
What the social and other media sites like Weibo (a microblogging application, launched by Sina Corporation, China in 2009, based on user relationships to share, disseminate and get information ) are talking about?
First example is a post published in June 2022 on Weibo and other social media sites and titled “China’s Determination! three super projects to be unveiled with a scale ranking First in the World” where in no new information is provided beyond what is given in initial 2018 paper except the conclusion which declares that “once the project is complete, it will shock the world” (Science Knowledge Show 2022), said the report in the post.
Second example is of a blogger who used to be skeptical about the project in 2021 said, “it could take 50 years to realize the transfer of water through the sky to fall as remote precipitation but, If we do not do research on this project, it will not happen in China, but in a foreign (Western) country.”
Third example is a video posted by a micro blogger who often talk about infrastructure states that, “once the project is complete, those foreign experts who made irresponsible remarks for casting doubt on the project will eat their words” and will solicit support from viewers by asking “If you think our country’s capital construction is awesome”, please cheer them all.
For details pl. read article written by Wang et al. 2016: 656.
The Promethean dream of China is alive with heart and soul of Chinese Scientist who will transform this dream into a reality not by borrowed capital but by vision bestowed upon them which we need to borrow. No sarcastic remark can destroy it.
Abraham Lincoln once said, “As an individual who understand to live by borrowing, soon finds his original means devoured (consumed) by interest and next, no one left to borrow from and so, must it be with government.”
Don’t you think he is explaining our current situation? Indeed he is
Can somebody show this quote to the wheeler-dealer of this country please?
That’s all for now dear readers.
See you next week. Till then, take care/
Bye
