Cooling the Planet With a Bubble Bath

cremeglace writes "A Harvard University physicist has come up with a new way to cool parts of the planet: pump vast swarms of tiny bubbles into the sea to increase its reflectivity and lower water temperatures. 'Since water covers most of the earth, don't dim the sun,' says the scientist, Russell Seitz, speaking from an international meeting on geoengineering research. 'Brighten the water.' From ScienceNOW: 'Computer simulations show that tiny bubbles could have a profound cooling effect. Using a model that simulates how light, water, and air interact, Seitz found that microbubbles could double the reflectivity of water at a concentration of only one part per million by volume. When Seitz plugged that data into a climate model, he found that the microbubble strategy could cool the planet by up to 3C. He has submitted a paper on the concept he calls “Bright Water" to the journal Climatic Change.'"

Comments

Tiny Bubbles?

[gyrogeerloose]

Has he cleared that with Don Ho?

Tiny Bubbles

[billstewart]

Too bad Don Ho's gone...

Re:Tiny Bubbles

[QRDeNameland]

Difference between Funny and Redundant 1 minute. Duly noted.

I still say we just move the Earth

[Anonymous Coward]

It can't be that hard... Just put some giant rockets on one side, and boom! What could go wrong?

Re:I still say we just move the Earth

[maxwell demon]

Don't move the earth. Instead reduce energy production of the sun. Besides countering global warming, it also has the effect of increasing the sun's lifetime, because it uses up its fuel more slowly.

We just have to find the knob where to change the setting.

Re:I still say we just move the Earth

[Anonymous Coward]

We'll just do it at night, when the Sun is turned off.

No mention of

[Rik Sweeney]

a rubber duck. It's not a proper bubble bath without a rubber duck.

Re:Cue Don Ho song...

[Red Flayer]

Don Ho:

Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
Make me warm all over

FTS:

'Computer simulations show that tiny bubbles could have a profound cooling effect.

Either this physicist is full of shit, or Don Ho was.

Re:Same problems

[maxwell demon]

It makes a lot of sense. If there's no life on the planet, no one cares about the temperature. Problem solved.

How about solving the CAUSE??

[Hurricane78]

Sounds like someone banging his head against the wall all the time, and coming up with the “solution” of taking painkillers... while continuing to run against the wall.

I am baffled by the amount of elaborate ignorant high-level idiocy it takes, to come up with such thoughts.

Re:Before you muck about .....

[gestalt_n_pepper]

Don't you remember? You DID give me the time machine to warn everyone by posting on Slashdot. Remember what you said in the bunker?

"...everyone takes warnings posted on Slashdot seriously, so we put you in the time machine and...."

Obligatory Futurama Reference

[fyoder]

Narrator: [in movie] Fortunately, our handsomest politicians came up with a cheap, last-minute way to combat global warming. Ever since 2063 we simply drop a giant ice cube into the ocean every now and then.

[The movie cuts to a shot of a aircraft dropping a large ice cube into the ocean and then cuts back to the classroom.]

Suzie: [in movie] Just like Daddy puts in his drink every morning. And then he gets mad.

Narrator: [in movie] Of course, since the greenhouse gases are still building up, it takes more and more ice each time. [There are shots of bigger ice cubes being dropped into the ocean.] Thus solving the problem once and for all.

Suzie: [in movie] But--

Narrator: [angry; in movie.] Once and for all!