> the water in the ocean moves horizontally as well as vertically. I'd thought the way to alter the distribution sea surface temperature would be to have floating structures that increase the coupling between wind and surface currents. Of course, that's based my impression that windmills are the lowest-cost energy collection system, and that eventually the areas of good wind on land won't be enough, so it will be economically feasible to put windmills at sea, or nearly so.
On Jul 16, 12:56 pm, "Alvia Gaskill" <[email protected]> wrote: > http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20090716/tc_pcworld/canbillgatesco... > > More discussion of the Microsoft Platform for Wind Suppression. The > professor from U. Miami echoes a concern of mine as well that the water in > the ocean moves horizontally as well as vertically. However, having enough > devices positioned close enough together would tend to offset at least the > surface changes in water temperature from warm water infiltration. Dr. Nolan > also thinks the entire concept is flawed. > > From a policy perspective, it is interesting that Gates et al. (actually > Gates, as et al. really has no say) wants his own insurance policy from > critics, stating that the technology would only be used if all other > mitigation options were exhausted. Really? Look, we had killer hurricanes > long before the industrial revolution. If this technology could prevent 1 > cat 1 storm from becoming a cat 3-5 and striking the U.S. mainland, it would > be worth the trouble up to several billion dollars. TODAY. > > Applying this to remove CO2 from the atmosphere as is one of its stated > applications is more relevant to the "should we do it now or later" argument. > But Stephen, based in part on Ken's calculations has argued that there would > be benefits above and beyond carbon credits for biomass removal. So, I find > the Plan C argument unbelieveable and thus makes me wonder if IV is a vanity > patent factory to help improve the Boss Man's public image at a time when > billionaires, however they got their money, are not all that popular. > > Can Bill Gates Control the Weather? > a.. By Brennon Slattery - Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:16AM EDT > > Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, is a man with a permanent light bulb over > his head. His latest idea? Controlling the weather. Sounds insane, but in a > patent application recently released to the public, Gates and several > co-inventors have concocted a scheme to kill hurricanes over the ocean before > they wreak havoc on land. > > The idea is for barges to pump cold water from the depths of the ocean to > create a sort of road block for the hurricane. Since hurricanes cull power > from the water's warm temperatures, cooling the water could theoretically > lessen the impact or outright dismantle a hurricane. > > Intellectual Ventures Lab, an organization built by former Microsoft > executives to brainstorm new technologies to benefit mankind, says that this > isn't a Plan A or Plan B scenario, but rather a Plan C. Pablos Holman wrote > in the company's blog that Big Hurricane Suck would be used when "humans > decide that we have exhausted all of our behavior changing and alternative > energy options and need to rely on mitigation technologies." > > It's hard not to make a joke here about Windows -- the analogy is too > powerful. Once Microsoft exhausted its resources patching and promoting > Vista, it was forced into pushing Windows 7 out earlier than expected. Stop > the storm before it intensifies, lands, and destroys PCs due to faulty > builds. Ahh. There, I said it. > > http://intellectualventureslab.com/?tag=hurricane-suppression > > A Machine to Stop Hurricanes > > July 10th, 2009 pablos Leave a comment Go to comments > It might be possible to suppress hurricanes so they aren’t so devastating to > people who live in their path. We’ve been inventing in this area along with > climate change and alternative energy sources. Today a patent application > related to this was published by the USPTO and TechFlash has written a nice > piece about this. Some of the questions that came up in the comments there > are about whether this type of inventing should be done in the first place. > We absolutely believe that we should investigate our options should the > environmental change cause severe disruption. This type of technology is not > something humankind would try as a “Plan A” or “Plan B.” These inventions > are a “Plan C” where humans decide that we have exhausted all of our behavior > changing and alternative energy options and need to rely on mitigation > technologies. If our planet is in this severe situation, then our belief is > that we should not be starting from scratch at investigating mitigation > options. > > We’re looking forward to discussing these ideas and will post more about them > here later this year. > > Todd Bishop > July 11th, 2009 at 16:04 | #1 > Reply | Quote > Pablos, thanks for providing some extra explanation. I’ve posted a follow-up > on TechFlash (http://bit.ly/zx5ZK) so that more people will have this > additional context. > > Also in that post are more comments from the University of Miami’s David > Nolan, questioning whether the concept would work as outlined in the patent > filings. Would be great to hear your thoughts on those questions, as well. > > http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Bill_Gates_hurricane_stopper_would... > > Bill Gates' hurricane stopper would be 'Plan C' for humanity > By Todd Bishop on July 11, 2009 at 3:50 PM PDT > Comments (3) | Permalink > Environment | Bill Gates | Nathan Myhrvold | Microsoft > > The environmental impact was one concern raised by readers following our post > detailing the hurricane-supression system proposed by Bill Gates, former > Microsoft chief techology officer Nathan Myhrvold and others. In response, > one of the people working on the project in Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures > Lab has posted an explanation on the company's site. > > "This type of technology is not something humankind would try as a 'Plan A' > or 'Plan B,' " writes Paul "Pablos" Holman in the Intellectual Ventures post. > "These inventions are a 'Plan C' where humans decide that we have exhausted > all of our behavior changing and alternative energy options and need to rely > on mitigation technologies. If our planet is in this severe situation, then > our belief is that we should not be starting from scratch at investigating > mitigation options." > > Pablos also posted that as a comment on our original post. > > David Nolan, the University of Miami professor we spoke with for the initial > post, has since expressed additional doubt about whether the concept would > work at all. The plan, as outlined in patent filings by Gates, Myhrvold and > others, appears to rely largely on a technique for pushing warm water down to > alter the surface temperature of the ocean, rather than bringing cold water > up. > > Here's what Nolan says: > > If that's the case, it's even less likely to work. Some of the warm water > would be replaced by cold water coming up from below, but some of it would be > replaced by warm water converging from outside the region. Also, it's very > hard for cold water to come up from below, as it is cooler and therefore more > dense than the warm water above. (When warm fluid lies over cold fluid, as in > 99.99% of the ocean, vertical motions are strongly suppressed. This is called > "stratification.") Similarly, it's hard for warm water to go down. The idea > of using breaking waves to make a column of water that is slightly higher > than sea level is a good one, but because it is warmer, the whole column may > not even weigh more than the surrounding water even if it is taller. > > Pablos from Intellectual Ventures Lab notes that the company will be > providing more information about the project later this year, so apart from > the environmental questions, it will be interesting to see how they address > the issues Nolan raises. > > 4bcc117992005dd98f9e351fa97bbae3.gif?x=106&y=27&q=85&sig=1wOFKweY1o9t16YJyqPEAw-- > 3KViewDownload > > hurricanesmall.jpg > 29KViewDownload --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. 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