Star Scene

By Tarek Tutunji

Recently Lebanon has gone through an especially warm January, leading many to point towards global warming as the culprit. While global warming is a really important topic I don’t want to bring it up right now. What needs to be brought up, however, is the fact that the most important Lebanese sector is experiencing what can only be described as a disaster because the snows have failed to come until today apparently (read more here). The fact that Lebanon relies on tourism all year round means that a lot of the country’s success relies on the fickle forces of the weather. While important structural adjustments to Lebanon’s economy need to be made, there is at least one short term step that the Lebanese government can take to prevent similar catastrophes in the immediate future, and that is cloud seeding.

Cloud seeding has been most prominently featured in the news-pieces of angsty liberal tree-huggers complaining against the Chinese government’s practice of playing god with the weather. Whiny voices aside, this thing can prove to be a great boost to the Lebanese skiing season. Not only can it prevent the effects of a warmer climate, it can also be used to prolong our winter tourist season, which at the moment stands at a measly two, maybe three months, and add up to an entire month of skiing and snowy fun and profit.

For those of you  thinking about the money involved in the process, a single artificial rain/snow fall can cost up to half a million dollars! But taking into account that Lebanon had close to two hundred thousand (200,000) tourists for the first two months of 2009, throwing away a few million dollars into the clouds may be worth it.  At best, the investment will return in the form of a longer winter season, at worst, it will serve as a good use for our newly acquired Mig jets, hell if I know how else we’re going to use them.

P.S. Thank you, Beirut NTSC, for the image idea