Thursday, November 23, 2006

Stopping Global Warming (and hurricanes!)

Crooks and Liars » Can Dr. Evil Save the Earth?: "...Wood's proposal was not technologically complex. It's based on the idea, well-proven by atmospheric scientists, that volcano eruptions alter the climate for months by loading the skies with tiny particles that act as mini-reflectors, shading out sunlight and cooling the Earth. Why not apply the same principles to saving the Arctic? Getting the particles into the stratosphere wouldn't be a problem — you could generate them easily enough by burning sulfur, then dumping the particles out of high-flying 747s, spraying them into the sky with long hoses or even shooting them up there with naval artillery. They'd be invisible to the naked eye, Wood argued, and harmless to the environment. Depending on the number of particles you injected, you could not only stabilize Greenland's polar ice — you could actually grow it..."

That will work. You can also decrease the ferocity of a hurricane by lowering the water temperature in its path. For every 1 degree (if I remember correctly) lower, the hurricane winds subside by 5 m.p.h. So, use those same planes in the summer to dump tons of ice you made in the winter to stop the hurricanes. (You can type stuff in the Google and use the Internets as well as I can, so find your own links.)

Of course, things could go amiss and putting a bit too much sulfur in the old oxy container, in addition to farting up the whole planet, could freeze Florida under a foot of late spring snow. Might make the Rat Empire unhappy. Dark clouds and sliver linings...

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