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Scientist Are Working to 'Steer' Hurricanes
E++99 writes "In the wake of Katrina, two teams of climate scientists have been working to steer hurricanes. Both teams are using the technique of removing power and speed from strategic points in the hurricane, effectively refracting its path. The American team is approaching this by warming the areas of the tops of the hurricane clouds, either by dropping ash to absorb heat from the sun, or directly beaming microwaves on those areas from space. The Israeli team is taking the approach of cooling the bottom of the hurricane by releasing dust along its base."
I assume that's exactly what the Israeli angle is.
TWW
This kind of stuff scares me, for the same reason genetically modified food scares me. We're messing with stuff we don't really understand all that well. I lived in Southern Mexico for a few years and at one point, Hurricane Mitch was hanging off the coast. It stayed there for days. But if you looked at the forecasts at the time, they basically said it was coming straight for the town I lived in, in 2 days. But it said that for about 4 or 5 days straight. Then, suddenly, Mitch shot off South and hit Honduras instead.
Now, let's say, armed with that kind of forecast and a hurricane predicted to hit New Orleans is "modified" however they plan to modify it so that it will miss. But it turns out conditions change and the hurricane hits New Orleans BECAUSE they modified it. There's no way to be sure that the modification is what caused it to hit, because as I mentioned earlier, it's something we don't really understand as well as we like to think. Is the team now responsible for the damage to New Orleans? Are they going to pick up the tab?
This is the kind of stuff where we're just as likely to do damage as to avoid it and frankly, I think it's something we're not ready to be messing with at this point.
Please mind your own business.
Please leave us to handle our own affairs, what ever they may be.
I fail to see the potential to weaponize this very well. I can maybe understand Cuba, but other than that, any degree of fine control would out of the question. Besides it probably would have hit Cuba anyways. As a side note, we had a project going like this before, but Castro started propagating the idea that the US was trying to divert their courses to Cuba. For now, the changes we would make would be minscule, likely barely enough to move a direct hit on a city to a glancing blow. These ethics go both ways too, if we had the ability to try and do something, and we didn't, are we any better than if we tried and failed?
Demented But Determined.
That's a pretty low score. Perhaps you were thinking 4.1 out of 5 max.
Infuriate left and right