This Week in Startups Cloud Seeding, Conspiracies & the Texas Floods | BONUS EPISODE!
24 snips
Jul 9, 2025 
Augustus Doricko, founder of cloud seeding startup Rainmaker, joins to discuss the recent floods in Texas and the backlash against his technology. He explains the science behind cloud seeding and addresses concerns about its safety and effectiveness. The conversation dives into the ethics of weather manipulation and compares cloud seeding with desalination as viable solutions for water scarcity. Regulatory frameworks and public perception are also tackled, highlighting the complexity of innovation in climate tech.
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Cloud Seeding Didn't Cause Floods
- Tropical Storm Barry caused about four trillion gallons of rain in Texas, unrelated to cloud seeding.
- Rainmaker seeded just two clouds with a tiny amount of silver iodide, dissipating well before flooding began.
Scale Difference: Cloud Seeding vs Nature
- Cloud seeding can produce up to about 300 acre feet of water per event, roughly 50 Olympic pools.
- This output is minuscule compared to natural rain events producing millions of acre feet.
Cloud Seeding Complements Desalination
- Desalination is effective near coasts but extremely costly and impractical to distribute water inland.
- Cloud seeding offers a scalable way to distribute precipitation over large inland ecosystems cheaper than desalination pipelines.
