There are a variety of artificial materials that could be used, such as corn starch plastic strips, etc. as well as packing peanuts. There are lots of agricultural wastes that would be worth a go. Wheat straw, peanut shells, apple cores, potato peelings, etc.
The logic for this approach is just that it seems a small difference in heat transfer to the storm could make a big difference to the storm's destructive power. Even a 1mph difference make a house fall down or not fall down. It's so cheap to trial this that it has to be worth a go. Fine a small natural harbour, chuck in a few split bales of straw and see what happens. There should be a degree-magnitude temperature difference compared to control conditions in time and space. Hands up who lives near the sea nand has ready access to groundnut waste, hay, etc. A 2009/8/15 Alvia Gaskill <[email protected]> > I guess this makes you a "cereal killer." Cereal is also relatively > expensive. Starch based packing peanuts would be whiter and also > biodegradable, but the scale and other issues previously discussed in my > opinion make this an infeasible pre-emptive measure. > > You may have seen on the weather this week that some Saharan dust > interfered with the development of a tropical wave in the Atlantic, so there > are ways to prevent the growth of storms. > > I still think that an examination of the effect of placing a white cover > over part of the country of Niger (of Plame and yellowcake fame) on the > discharge of waves into the Gulf of Guinea would be a worthwhile exercise. > The hot Saharan air from there or even from other surrounding areas would > have to pass over this cooler area and be subject to subsidence. This would > prevent it from converging and if it never enters the water with any > characteristics of a wave, it can't gain energy from the jungle or the ITCZ, > it can't gain rotation from the Coriolis effect and it can never become an > organized tropical cyclone. > > Stephen Salter and Bill Gates want to kill them on the way to school or or > work, I favor the "strangle them in the crib" or earlier approach. BTW, > that dinky little Cat 1 that hit Taiwan killed 500 people. The best > hurricane is no hurricane at all. OK, I'm biased. > > In the fall of 1954, a 36-year-old pregnant woman in coastal NC was nearly > killed when she attempted to remove downed tree limbs from her yard, > thinking that a hurricane that had just struck the area had passed and > instead was caught off guard by the winds from the backside of the storm as > the eye was passing directly over her. She was my mother. I was along for > the ride. > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Andrew Lockley <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Cc:* geoengineering <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Friday, August 14, 2009 8:48 PM > *Subject:* [geo] Re: Home experiment > > After a couple of days all the Special K sank. I think this is rather > neat. It gives you a couple of days to whiten and insulate the ocean - just > long enough to mess up a hurricane. Then it can either end up as food for > bottom-feeders or it will sequester the carbon. > I think it could be worth a sea trial. If anyone lives near a relatively > secluded harbour and can afford to invest in a few boxes of breakfast > cereal, it would be a very cheap geoeng experiment. Perhaps we can attempt > to calculate from first principles whether Rice Krispies or Sugar Puffs > would be the best. Will the Honey Monster or the GRRRRRREAT Tiger save > Florida most effectively? > > An alternative is sawdust or matchwood, which would be more resilient and > would have better insulating properties as it would float out of the water > and is non-porous. However, it's not as short lived, which may be a > problem. > > I have to admit it would be extremely amusing if such a ridiculous idea > actually works. > > A > > 2009/8/13 Oliver Wingenter <[email protected]> > >> >> Dear Andrew, >> >> If the water temperature is warmer than the air you will insulate the >> water and make it warmer. What color will the Special K be after a >> few days if it is eat? What happens to the (additional) fish near the >> surface when the hurricane comes? If not the cooling effect will >> increase the mixed layer depth and this will have an additional >> cooling effect. >> >> Evaporation may increase because the surface area of the Special K is >> higher than the water. Worth checking this out. >> >> Pick a substance that will break down in a few days and is benign. >> There is a natural organic scum on the sea surface already. If you >> add to it, you will alter bubble bursting and air-sea transfer. >> >> Good luck, >> >> Oliver Wingenter >> >> >> >> >> On Aug 12, 5:50 pm, Andrew Lockley <[email protected]> wrote: >> > I tested my theory that breakfast cereals could disrupt hurricanes with >> a >> > very small experiment. >> > I got some Kellog's Special K and floated it in briny water for 36 >> hours. I >> > tried two versions: soaked in olive oil, and dry. Both samples remained >> > afloat, just under the surface of the water, at the end of the >> experiment. >> > >> > I suggest that this will make a significant difference to heat transfer >> into >> > the hurricane, by a variety of mechanisms: >> > 1) Increasing albedo (Special K is pale yellow) which will reduce solar >> > heating of the sea >> > 2) Impeding circulation on small scales near the surface, reducing >> > evaporation >> > 3) Oil-mixed cereal may reduce evaporation directly, by reducing the wet >> > surface area >> > 4) A continuous oil layer will reduce wave disturbance, thus reducing >> > effective surface area. >> > >> > I think this idea is worthy of some further consideration. I really >> hope >> > someone can comment on the idea. It seems pretty cheap and >> environmentally >> > benign to me. >> > >> > A >> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. 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