They've had it with snow in Moscow. They are tired of trudging through the stuff piled high as a reindeer's eye. At least that's what Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is telling the citizens. The real reason the snow must go has a little less to do with snow banks than it does with Russian banks.

Mayor Luzhkov has hatched a plan for the Russian Air Force to do extensive cloud seeding around the city of Moscow. The belief is this will ensure the bulk of the snow will fall in the rural areas around the city. The cloud seeding will cost about $6 million. The annual snow removal budget is close to twice that amount. Aha! There's the rub. Another financially strapped municipality looking for any avenue that will lead to budget reductions.

BTW, it's not as if this is a new thing to Moscow. The city for years has spent over $2 million to keep the rain away during their Victory Day Parade in May and their City Day Parade in September. But a little cloud seeding in May and a little in September is a lot different than seeding for a whole season. It's never been done on a time scale this massive. So what? Is there a problem here? Maybe.

Cloud seeding involves planes dropping cement powder, dry ice and silver iodide in the lower levels of the atmosphere. In simplest terms, this combination creates cold air and condensation nuclei which speed up the precipitation process. Here's the problem. What if some of the untold tons of cement powder, dry ice and silver iodide make it to the upper level winds and get distributed far and away from Moscow? Will it have a dramatic impact, slight impact, or no impact on weather around the globe?

And don't think for a minute it's only those cold-crazed Russians with a full blown wackaloon scheme to turn Moscow into Morocco. Radical weather modification is being considered right here in the U.S. of A. And not by our government. By people who can actually afford it. Like Bill Gates. I guess now that he's retired with almost all the money in the world, he is bored so he's dabbling with the idea of preventing hurricanes and/or guiding them away from populated areas.

I would like to make a radical suggestion. Almost as radical as changing the climate of the planet. Here it is: If you don't like the weather where you live...leave. If it's too cold and snowy where you are, go south. If it's too humid, head west. And if you're deathly afraid of hurricanes, move inland. I know that's crazy talk, but I was one of the nut jobs who thought we should rebuild New Orleans up river on the Mississippi where it would actually be ABOVE sea level. It just seemed like a good idea in a flood prone hurricane zone. What was I thinking?