13th March 2021 | 21:33

China is in the news a lot these days.

One of its declared goals that has received less attention, is that is that by 2025 its weather modification programme will allow China to control rain and snow across an area that is more than one-and-a-half times the size of India, or 20 times the size of the UK.

China’s State Council said weather modification will “intensify” in areas of mitigating drought, hail, fires and high temperatures, while also assisting agricultural production and preserving ecologically protected areas.

We don’t know how successful will China be in controlling their own weather but what will the impacts be on neighbouring countries? How will their weather be affected by these technologies and experiments?

And as China ramps up its investments in weather modification technologies, shouldn’t rich countries like the US be doing the same – rather than wasting money and enriching millionaires on renewable energy subsidies that seriously impact energy security and costs to consumers.

We talk to resident meteorologist Kirk Clyatt about weather modification and recent developments in this area.

Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has just been signed into law. The measure is the sixth major COVID-19 relief bill Congress has authorized in a year, and a sum of “emergency” spending totaling around $US5 ($6) trillion.

The OECD has already projected the U.S. economy will grow by 6.5% this year, so will this supercharge the economy or just help struggling Americans and small businesses emerge from the devastation of Covid lockdowns imposed by their Governments.

We look more closely at what is contained in this bill and how it will affect business and the economy.

Blake Christian, a Partner with Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt looks more closely at what is contained in this bill and how it will affect business and the economy.