Posted on 08/06/2009 5:02:35 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Cloud ships on course to beat climate change, says Copenhagen study
It is hoped that the clouds produced by the "cloud ships" could cancel out the greenhouse effect Ben Webster, Environment Editor, and Hannah Devlin
They sound like ideas from a Jules Verne novel, but giant engineering schemes designed to alter the climate offer the cheapest way of avoiding catastrophic global warming, according to a growing number of scientists and green-minded entrepreneurs.
Most of the schemes have been dismissed as impossibly expensive or impractical, such as the proposal to create a space sunshade by using rockets to deploy millions of mirrors in the stratosphere.
One relatively cheap solution, however, is gaining favour among many different groups and is endorsed today by an independent study that compares the costs and benefits of all the main ideas. A wind-powered fleet of 1,900 ships would criss-cross the oceans, sucking up sea water and spraying it from the top of tall funnels to create vast white clouds.
These clouds would reflect a tiny proportion, between 1 and 2 per cent, of the sunlight that would otherwise warm the ocean. This would be enough to cancel out the greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide emissions. The ships would be unmanned and directed by satellite to locations with the best conditions for increasing cloud cover. They would mainly operate in the Pacific, far enough from land to avoid interfering with rainfall.
The idea has been circulating for a decade but until now has merely been one of many climate engineering pipedreams. A study commissioned by the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, a think-tank that advises governments on how to spend aid money, found that the fleet would cost $9 billion (£5.3 billion) to test and launch within 25 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
My gut feeling says that is definitely not a good idea.......
That’s what I thought. Water vapor would be the only low energy way I could foresee and it would be a very low volume.
Clouds are poor reflectors of radio frequencies. Radar cannot see a cloud, but can see precipitation. On the other hand thick clouds are strong reflectors of infrared heat. Almost all of the heat in a cloud originally came from the surface at the time the water evaporated. Clouds absorb very little new heat from the surface once they are up there.
What’s the saying? : Nothing’s impossible for those who don’t have to do it.
Post of the day!
[. . .they could use the resulting freshwater.]
If this program would increase rainfall over the Middle East without adversely affecting the climate elsewhere Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Dubai and some others might be happy to pay for it.
Smudge pots produce heat which helps to keep citrus from freezing. The smoke is pretty much gone once the pot is 'primed'. After it gets about 29 or 30 degrees F, they don't work. (former Florida Citrus Belt resident)
Why don’t they do something much less expensive and a lot more effective: PRAY!
I would only like this idea if the whole aim was to increase rainfall in traditionally dry areas. Imagine a fleet of these ships being used to increase agriculture and human prosperity. Instead it will be used to reinforce the lie of Man Made climate change and will be used to actually alter the environment in order to reinforce their controlling ideals.
An interesting thing about some kinds of ocean algae is if they are bothered by too much UV radiation they emit a chemical that causes water vapor to condense into clouds, which then reduce the UV level. Saltwater algae somewhat regulate their local climate.
Making algae biodiesel in the open ocean could be used to make more freshwater and cool the climate. But the Saudi's are going to hate this particular idea because it would ruin their free ride.
Slow ride
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