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Scientists Consider 'Cloud Brightening' To Preserve Australia's Great Barrier Reef (technologyreview.com)
An anonymous reader quotes MIT Technology Review:
A group of Australian marine scientists believe that altering clouds might offer one of the best hopes for saving the Great Barrier Reef. For the last six months, researchers at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and the University of Sydney School of Geosciences have been meeting regularly to explore the possibility of making low-lying clouds off the northeastern coast of Australia more reflective in order to cool the waters surrounding the world's biggest coral reef system...
Last year, as El Nino events cranked up ocean temperatures, at least 20% of the reef died and more than 90% of it was damaged. The Australian researchers took a hard look at a number of potential ways to preserve the reefs. But at this point, making clouds more reflective looks like the most feasible way to protect an ecosystem that stretches across more than 130,000 square miles, says Daniel Harrison, a postdoctoral research associate with the Ocean Technology Group at the University of Sydney. Cloud brightening is the only thing we've identified that's scalable, sensible, and relatively environmentally benign," he says... Next month, he plans to start computer climate modeling to explore whether cloud brightening could make a big enough temperature difference to help.
They're collaborating with Silicon Valley's Marine Cloud Brightening Project, which has spent the last seven years "developing a nozzle that they believe can spray salt particles of just the right size and quantity to alter the clouds. They're attempting to raise several million dollars to build full-scale sprayers." The article describes them as "one of several research groups that have started to explore whether cloud brightening, generally discussed as a potential tool to alter the climate as a whole, could be applied in more targeted ways."
Last year, as El Nino events cranked up ocean temperatures, at least 20% of the reef died and more than 90% of it was damaged. The Australian researchers took a hard look at a number of potential ways to preserve the reefs. But at this point, making clouds more reflective looks like the most feasible way to protect an ecosystem that stretches across more than 130,000 square miles, says Daniel Harrison, a postdoctoral research associate with the Ocean Technology Group at the University of Sydney. Cloud brightening is the only thing we've identified that's scalable, sensible, and relatively environmentally benign," he says... Next month, he plans to start computer climate modeling to explore whether cloud brightening could make a big enough temperature difference to help.
They're collaborating with Silicon Valley's Marine Cloud Brightening Project, which has spent the last seven years "developing a nozzle that they believe can spray salt particles of just the right size and quantity to alter the clouds. They're attempting to raise several million dollars to build full-scale sprayers." The article describes them as "one of several research groups that have started to explore whether cloud brightening, generally discussed as a potential tool to alter the climate as a whole, could be applied in more targeted ways."
It's dead man
just turn it inside out, because -- you know.
So what happens if this intervention accidentally goes wrong and utterly destroys the entire reef? Wouldn't it be something if those who claim to be helping the reef end up killing it?
To save the coral from excessive heat, going for dying due to lack of light for the algae?
Alternative suggestion, map the bottom ocean currents in the area. Nudge one slightly to create an upwelling(s) of colder water.
Perhaps: Well the ocean temperature dropped enough, but turns out the local increase in salinity due to the cloud whitening machine spraying salt in to the air has killed off the entire Great Barrier Reef. Oops.
We have a long list of hilariously bad attempts at introducing things for the ‘better’ in Australia, The Cane Toad, Gamba Grass and Mimosa Pigra just name a few biological examples. I hope this effort doesn’t get added to our list of failures!
Killary Klitton would have loved to smoke the Great Hairier Reefer.
This reef needs to either adapt or die.
This is just a waste of money. Trump would never allow such frivolous spending.
Heh, the reef is worth about US$4.5 Billion a year in tourist income to Australia, not to mention it's value as a restocking nursery for surrounding commercial fisheries. Even the extreme right-wing climate change deniers might see some value in that.
So one the one hand, make clouds brighter (and apparent turn day into night according to you) or bring up cold water from the bottom of the ocean to the coast of Australia, by magic I suppose.
Or El Lobby ...
"But we do know it was us that scorched the sky"
Genius. Spray salt particles into the clouds. Then after the die-off from the salt water rains, we can all blame Trump.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
The extreme right-wing climate change deniers probably think Australia is some kind Liberal conspiracy and doesn't exist anyway. Let's just wait until the geography is settled on that one.
"not to mention it's value as a restocking nursery" for errant apostrophes? it's means it is.
To give the coral back its colour. There are plenty of good marine paints that can be used. Just around the tourist spots will do.
On the one hand we complain about man interfering with natural processes and bemoan climate change caused by our greed and shortsightedness... on the other we propose deliberately altering the natural processes in order to cause climate change because we know better?
And if it goes horribly wrong due to our shortsightedness and arrogance? I know several people who truly in the depths of their hearts believe that they know better, are brilliant, and can do no wrong. A little self doubt can do the world a lot of good.
Last I checked the western hemisphere's tropical and subtropical oceans warm while the eastern cool during an El Nino, while the opposite is true during a La Nina. We had one of the longest La Ninas lasting many years until last year which is why the California drought became so severe.
Am I wrong?
http://saveie6.com/
What areas will be negatively impacted and in what ways? The equation must be balanced.
I'm not a scientist, but I assume that the science is sound. My concern is not that what they propose will not have the desired effect, but rather they do not understand the complexity involved, and something else happens that they did not foresee. I guess that as long as the benefits outweigh the negative consequences, it's a win. However, usually when we mess with nature the unintended consequences are not known until many decades later.
Spraying shit into clouds to alter them and the weather is a whacked out conspiracy theory....isn't it?
Heh, the reef is worth about US$4.5 Billion a year in tourist income to Australia, not to mention it's value as a restocking nursery for surrounding commercial fisheries.
Tough for the Aussies then. 'Cause you can be sure the parties ultimately responsible for the damage, will NOT be the ones picking up the bill (see: externalities).
us or them, but we know that it was us that scorched the sky
Oh, so that carrier group really was near North Korea after all!
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Since the cane toad disaster, people have been more careful, and many biological control efforts have been extremely successful.
The prickly-pear moth, or rust fungus just don't generate the same headlines as the cane toad from 1935.
And we introduced white people, hardly a roaring success for any of the indigenous human, plant and animal populations.
This was on slashdot just yesterday!
It is not nice to fool with Mother Nature. Mother Nature is the mother of Murphy.
...at least 20% of the reef died and more than 90% of it was damaged.
Leaving -10% of the coral reef in good shape.
"We don't know who struck first, but we know it was us who scorched the sky"
While they are at it they can lower the acidity and sink some carbon by throwing a little calcium in to make some calcium bicarbonate...
https://phys.org/news/2011-01-...
The problem is you don't have a winter to kill off the gorillas. Need some global cooling for a bit.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
It's funny you say this. The CSIRO in Australia is currently investigating using selective breeding and genetic modification techniques to grow coral that is tolerant of higher temperatures and nutrient rich water (e.g. At the mouth of rivers near farmland). It will take many decades to see a recovery though once this technology is deployed, and the reef would never quite be the same.
Flying solar panels hovering over the reef.
Industrialised animal farming is what is killing the reef. Stop eating animals - they produce so much shit it's killing the ocean, but you won't care because Big Mac.
they are already doing 'cloud brightening' it's called geo engineering or more commonly chem trails. the reefs are bleeched by UV-rays from the sun and has nothing to do with the water temperature. the government is doing Everything to cover up what is coming with smoke screens, they don't want you to know, they have built bunker cities to hide in and others will perish in the coming destruction of the world. the government has known about this for over 400 years and kept it secret from us all. the only way to save your soul from eternal damnation in hell is to repent. Jesus Christ is coming!
Cutting down on fossil fuels wasn't feasible, but THIS is?
They are already seeding clouds and spraying the skis. I think the various agencies need to communicate more, so they dont develop the same technology over and over.
Given the rate at which we burn coal, flood the ocean with phosphates and generally have done our best to fuck up the reef, at this point there's no real downside to doing this test. We're already approaching a worst case scenario here.
Don't forget humans! The aboriginals decimated the the Australian ecosystem long before white man ever came along.
The aboriginals weren't exactly a boon for the megafauna of Australia either. Let's just face it, humans are bad for the environment no matter what their ethnicity.
Not sure this action will deter the 4000 to 6000 tons of suntan lotion that are killing the reefs.
does this "at least 20% of the reef died and more than 90% of it was damaged" mean that 10% of the reef died AND got damaged?
Should be easy. There are lots of cloud services to choose from. This may be a job for Microsoft Cloud.
Dickhead
"The Saudi's often import camels from Australia to breed against because they have more desirable traits and better breeds."
Would that also work for the British people?
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
And yet....I feel myself getting so lonely when they're not around.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
And after we successfully cool the water to prevent bleaching of the reef, we will have a poor crop yield. To counteract the poor crop yield, we will use more water and fertilizer on the crops. That will in turn create a subsequent increase in the crown-of-thorns-starfish (COTS). The resulting invasion of COTS will obliterate the ailing Great Barrier Reef.
This is unfortunately how it's going to go. I don't see spraying clouds with salt essentially as being a huge problem as the oceans have a lot of salt so it will likely just fall back in. If it works, it might help to save their reef which is apparently worth billions to their economy. The trade-off is cooling an area that large could cause spin off effects that could affect other parts of the world. I wonder how many climate change deniers are against them doing this? After all if burning a river of oil day after day won't do anything then what would spraying some salt do?
When push comes to shove, a country is going to act in it's own best interests to protect itself. If their climate-patch attempts break some other country's climate like ours, I'm curious to see how we'll treat it. After all it's not like all the manufactured goods and energy we consume could be having an effect on the planet right?
.
On the other hand, how much CO2 will go into the atmosphere trying to force enough salt into the atmosphere? Where is the trade off point on the effect vs damage from grinding, shipping, and blowing that salt hard enough into the sky? Clearly the whole process and its infrastructure must be taken into account to calculate any benefit.
Suggestion, power it all with the wind. The hotter it gets the more wind energy that could be use to grind, transport, and blow the salt. The more salt, the more clouds(?), and the less that photovoltaic energy that will be available because of the desired cloud cover.
Maybe in a few years Trump will let us put a couple of wind turbines on the base foundation left over where his Miami hotel once stood? Once Miami is under water the city will not be turning into the next Venice dream vacation spot. Might as well put it to good use. We could start building the hurricane resistant foundations now and be completely ready for all that free energy coming our way. Among other things, Trump solved the US energy problem! Yea!! This is exactly why we hired him. /s
They should just say Mexico will, eventually, in some form, pay for it.
It is means it is? Should've put "it's" in quotes. Hoisted by your own petard!
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Uh, no. All of earth can go bad at once. It's not a quadratic equation.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Sounds like a classic 'better than nothing' scenario to me.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.