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Image
Rain showers over sagebrush-steppe at the foot of the Sawtooth Mountains in Clark County, Idaho.

Rain showers over sagebrush-steppe at the foot of the Sawtooth Mountains in Clark County, Idaho.

Credit: Gerrit Vyn / Nature Picture Library

Rainmakers

Call to action:

Boost the small water cycle with regenerative land and water practices that restore soil health, expand plant diversity, replenish local watersheds, and cool local climates.

Rainmakers implement actions that boost the small water cycle(link is external), which recirculates moisture in a given area via evaporation and precipitation, increasing localized rainfall(link is external). It contrasts with the large water cycle(link is external), which draws water from oceans and moves it around the globe. A healthy small water cycle(link is external) is essential to watersheds, which provide water to communities, agriculture, and wildlife. It can counter desertification(link is external). However, human activities have disrupted small water cycles in many places by reducing vegetation and disturbing soils. Culprits include industrial agriculture, deforestation, and urbanization. One of the keys to rainmaking is specific cloud-forming bacteria(link is external). Their production can be directly influenced(link is external) by land management, including regenerative practices that restore degraded watersheds, diversify native vegetation, and improve soil health. Rainmakers implement localized solutions that are community-based and long-term.

Nexus Rating SystemBeta

Solutions to the climate emergency have unique social and environmental effects, positive and negative. To develop a broader understanding of the solutions in Nexus, we rate each solution on five criteria.

Sources for each Nexus are graded numerically (-3 through 10), and the average is displayed as a letter grade. You can explore each source in depth by clicking “view sources” below. For more information, see our Nexus Ratings page.

Rainmakers
6.60
0.00
0.00
6.70
0.00

Rainmakers

Culture
N/R
Women
N/R
Biodiversity
B
Carbon
N/R

Action Items

Individuals

Learn about what disrupts the small water cycle and why it is important to restore it. Research indicates that microbes(link is external), including bacteria(link is external), fungi, and algae, can be nuclei around which rain clouds form(link is external), as can dust(link is external). Microbes enable(link is external) ice formation, causing them to become “rainmakers,” a process called bioprecipitation(link is external). As research in the 1970s in Kenya indicated(link is external), biologically active landscapes, such as a forest or an ecological farm, can generate cloud-forming microbes(link is external) that become airborne, boosting local precipitation. The concentration of these rainmaking microorganisms(link is external) increases with vegetation cover and healthy soils(link is external). Industrial agriculture, urbanization, and deforestation can interfere with the small water cycle in a given landscape(link is external). This can lead to extended droughts, depleted water tables, heavy flooding, erosion, and extreme heat.

Restore the small water cycle where you live. Small water cycle restoration and maintenance is, by its nature, a local solution. The scale of what you can do and how big an impact you can have depends on your circumstances.

Support organizations restoring the small water cycle. As awareness about the importance of small water cycles grows, so too do people and projects pioneering localized, regenerative solutions to restoring them.

Groups

Farmers and other land managers

Restore and enhance the small water cycle through regenerative water and land management. By increasing the availability of cloud-forming bacteria, you can potentially increase the amount of water available for crops and animals. Restoring vegetation to degraded land can increase yields(link is external), enhance resilience to extreme weather, and improve(link is external) the soil’s ability to retain moisture.

 

Indigenous Communities

Restore and enhance the small water cycle through regenerative water and land management. Secure land tenure(link is external) rights(link is external) for local and Indigenous communities(link is external) is critical in ensuring effective water management(link is external) and regenerative land management(link is external) as a whole.

Researchers

Contribute to the body of research on the atmospheric microbiome and the role of water cycles in the climate. Understanding the presence and impact of microorganisms(link is external) in the atmosphere is growing(link is external), but significant gaps(link is external) remain. Solutions that harness bioprecipitation to generate rainfall are promising but complex(link is external), calling for a nuanced and localized(link is external) approach to implementation.

  • Overall, understanding of the presence(link is external) and role of microorganisms in the atmosphere is still being unraveled(link is external), and further study is needed.
  • Because certain bacteria that facilitate bioprecipitation also create frost(link is external), more research on how to mitigate(link is external) these consequences is required. One of the most effective “rainmaking” bacteria, Pseudomonas syringae, is thought to cause losses(link is external) of up to $1 billion annually in the United States.
  • A better understanding of the factors that influence growth rates of ice-nucleating active bacteria (INAs) is critical. They don’t grow uniformly and are highly dependent(link is external) on factors such as temperature, precipitation, and plant species.
  • More research is needed to better understand(link is external) the impact of land-cover change, particularly tree restoration, on the water cycle. Restoring forested areas can enhance water availability significantly in some places, while actually reducing(link is external) water overall in the catchment area in other places.
  • The French National Institute for Agricultural Research has developed a series of rainfall maps(link is external) to encourage research on bioprecipitation and how it can be harnessed to increase localized rainfall.

Companies

Invest in NGOs and communities restoring the small water cycle. The consequences of small water cycle disruption all have negative impacts on business. Regenerative approaches to restoring the small water cycle are largely being implemented by NGOs and community-based organizations at relatively small and specialized scales. They need long-term financial support to ease the costs(link is external) of scaling up these solutions. By financing these early-stage pioneers, you can expect returns(link is external) on your investment. Here are some examples of how companies and investors can support small water cycle restoration:

  • Shares and bonds. The Weather Makers encourage investors to buy a share(link is external) in their company, to enable their approaches to get to market more quickly. The Flow Partnership enables businesses, investors, and communities to fund water cycle restoration through the purchase of River and Landscape Bonds(link is external).
  • Business partnerships. NGOs such as WeForest(link is external) partner with businesses to support water cycle restoration projects. This helps companies while directly supporting regenerative water and land management in local communities.
  • Impact investment. Rewilding Europe(link is external) offers businesses and investors a number of options for funding projects that directly contribute to water cycle restoration(link is external). These include participating in a funding facility that provides loans to businesses implementing rewilding and offers access to a market of commercially viable, nature-based carbon credits.
  • Philanthropic funding. Restor(link is external) connects funders with restoration opportunities worldwide, including those focused on water cycle restoration. Explore their open-source database of projects seeking philanthropic support.

Governance

Support policies that incentivize regenerative water and land management that could aid bioprecipitation. Current water policy largely ignores the role of the small water cycle and views trees and other vegetation as consumers of moisture rather than as critical regulators(link is external) of both water and local climates. Decision-makers should go beyond(link is external) viewing vegetation and forests purely for their carbon sequestration potential and value their critical role in hydrological and weather cycles.

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