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1,500-Ship Fleet Proposed To Fight Climate Change
Roland Piquepaille writes "According to UK and US researchers, it should be possible to fight the global warming effects associated with an increase of dioxide levels by using autonomous cloud-seeding ships to spray salt water into the air. This project would require the deployment of a worldwide fleet of 1,500 unmanned ships to cool the Earth even if the level of carbon dioxide doubled. These 300-tonne ships 'would be powered by the wind, but would not use conventional sails. Instead they would be fitted with a number of 20 m-high, 2.5 m-diameter cylinders known as Flettner rotors. The researchers estimate that such ships would cost between £1m and £2m each. This translates to a US$2.65 to 5.3 billion total cost for the ships only."
Where's the obligatory whatcouldpossiblygowrong tag?
I mean, come on, use your imagination: a autonomous robotic fleet of cloud spewers gone astray?
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"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
And here I thought dropping an ice cube into the ocean was a really far fetched idea and nobody would take it seriously.
-- What did Spock find in Kirk's toilet? The captain's log.
One question for any Chaos Theory fans: what are the long-term effects of creating large, man-made clouds over the ocean?
In Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine and a whole lot of people get eaten by prehistoric animals?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
solving the problem once and for all.
ONCE AND FOR ALL!
Sometimes, only RTFA can help you.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
You mean like Death Valley which is below sea level? Which mostly is a prehistoric salt water lake anyways. Stop making sense, it upsets the balance of power for elitists.
I've got 101 mod points and you can't have them!
Where will the ships get the salt water from?
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
It's Lupus!
This is madness.
THIS ... IS ... SLASHDOT!
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like yelling.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
So what happens when they find out that these automatic water sprayers suck up an inordinate number of endangered West Java Sea Trouser Trout? I'll pledge $50 for the pay-per-view featuring the Greenies vs the Global Warming Freaks.
> It almost certainly will be a doctor who solves this problem, just not a medical one.
Really? I was almost sure it would be a regular no-degree Slashdotter.
They didn't mention that on the Discovery Channel.
Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
Ah... but what if we fired lime, salt, Grand Marnier, Jose Cuervo, and some ice into the sky?
As a supporter of chaos theory and all things quantum..
My answer is, "Yes there will be long-term effects, and no there will not be any long-term effects.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
But that's unnatural. Gaia, the god of the environuts, will not be appeased.
After all, everyone and everything is just "naturally good".
It's impossible to be sure because there are too many unknowns including the affect of large amounts of salt in the atmosphere and raining down on land.
It's what plants crave!
Failure to follow this advice may result in non-deterministic behavior.
We need to do enough research to make sure it won't cause a hurricane / tsunami first
You don't actually know what a tsunami is, do you?
Hey, it could happen. Those clouds can get pretty big! If one of them were to fall....
;-)
I'd prefer to look at it as every able-bodied living person obtaining a $0.99 rubber chicken and shaking it at the sky... Costs the same, involves the entire world community, and is just as useful.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
statues-que
FYI, it's status quo.
No, it's the statues_queue (or statuesQueue for you CamelCaseCoders). Apparently an implementation of the SculptureFIFO pattern...
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen modded to +5.
*pft* Hell, I can beat *that*! Just check out some of my comments. I expect an apology.
would we get a heroine to inspire such a fleet? She would have to be 50% more beautiful than Helen of Troy...
If she doesn't like it we may have to kill her to save ourselves! :(
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
I have a "Modest Proposal."
Growth in food generation is linear - add another acre, get another x bushel.
Growth in human population is quadratic - 2 rabbits make 4 rabbits make 8 rabbits. Over 3 generations we have 8x the population, but adding acreage at the same rate yields only 3x the food (if we started with 2 humans tilling 1 acre.)
The solution is for everyone to eat their children. It simultaneously solves the food problem and the population growth problem. Or I think that's how it goes. Depending no your latrine design, it may be a carbon sink!
DATABASE WOW WOW
These ships do nothing about the levels of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere! They merely produce more cloud cover to reflect radiant heat back into the atmosphere. The main purpose of these ships is to combat supposed "global warming" by inducing "global cooling". The method will probably work, but do we really want to have the next ice age started by a bunch of autonomous robots. I for one would rather have the next ice age induced by the smoke from my charcoal grill, at least that way I get to enjoy a savory delight.
girl:
ONCE AND FOR ALL!
There should be a "+1, Flamebait, but true" ;)
Question of the week: Do you need fossil fuels to fuel a flame-bait?
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
When a certain species of animal overmultiplies, and Mother Nature brings a drought,
Oh sure bring religion into it.