The basic idea of CLIMATE BREAKDOWN Reports is to use the power of AI to generate the kind of urgent, ethical, science-based journalism that a real climate emergency demands. 

In the summer of 2024 I did a bike-hiking tour of Idaho that lasted 120 days with 80 different camps. I was especially interested in exploring the Snake River, Clearwater & Salmon River watersheds. On the ground from the climate breakdown perspective, the effects of a hotter drier climate can be seen everywhere, noticeably with declining snowpack—down 50% since 1950–together with declining mountain forest health. This is especially self-evident when you travel at a slow, natural, I would say more human pace from Mount Borah—at 3859 meters, the highest point of Idaho—on around to the West through the magnificent Craters of the Moon National Park, and then up North again along the Big Wood River into the world-famous Sun Valley. 

I was especially struck by the barren general aspect of Mount Baldy, at 2800 meters the center of Sun Valley‘s ski industry. It has an historical reputation of being an anomalously rich snowfall area. But one glance to it’s south facing aspect is enough to convince an over-the-hill mountaineering skier like me that this can’t possibly be the case, at least not in the new hotter drier climate. (Its more recent wildfire history would also confirm this view, but that is the subject of another report… ) interviews with local skiers revealed that Baldy is now sustained by more than 900 snow cannons, a figure almost twice as high as that cited in the GEMINI-generated AI audio clip below. But that’s just a detail. The fact that commercial media does not want us to see is that commercial skiing is now unsustainable. With great emphasis, I would like to add that this deception—whether deliberate or not—is in “perfect harmony“ with the nonstop undeniably  objective reality of Hydrocarbon Man Car-Culture that roars 24-7 along the still beautiful, eminently bike-friendly, State Highway 75.

So with this as background, let us listen to our Deep Dive about engineering our way out of the snow pack decline problem not just with snow cannons, but now with larger scale cloud seeding weather modification techniques.  

CLOUD SEEDING, or when the ILLUSION OF CONTROL becomes reality…

Composer. Writer. Photographer. Former conductor & founder of the ASKO ensemble.

On a bike/ski/hike trek of the Pacific Northwest studying native plants & climate breakdown 🌲 from sagebrush sea to whitebark pine. Composing off-grid the whole way.

#Sun2Sound 🌕 on Bluesky

THINKING LIKE A STONEPINE, a soundpoem manifesto https://vimeo.com/844665859

“LOVE & WATER, three thought poems w/ coda, PHAROS for small orchestra, “Nightwind”” https://vimeo.com/847079690 

CURRENTLY on mt bike/ski/climbing trek through Pacific Northwest, working on a photobook about WHITEBARK PINE COLLAPSE and CLIMATE CRISIS. BASES in the WALLOWAS | AMSTERDAM | ALPS. 

WEEKLY photo/poetry updates at www.picture-poems.com & THE CIRCLE IN THE SQUARE new music, poetry & dance performance project at www.cs-music.com

ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT for progressive, tech-savy, instrumental virtuosi interested in dialogue & collaborative undertakings.

CONTACT cliff@picture-opoems.com
Or on SKYPE or FACETIME @cliffcrego

MUSIC? The one thing humans do,
that makes the rest of nature jealous.

CLOUD SEEDING, or when the ILLUSION OF CONTROL becomes reality…

Cliff Crego