1,500-Ship Fleet Proposed To Fight Climate Change 692
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."
Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Where's the obligatory whatcouldpossiblygowrong tag?
I mean, come on, use your imagination: a autonomous robotic fleet of cloud spewers gone astray?
Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
And here I thought dropping an ice cube into the ocean was a really far fetched idea and nobody would take it seriously.
Re:Headline (Score:5, Funny)
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?
Thus (Score:5, Funny)
solving the problem once and for all.
ONCE AND FOR ALL!
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Being as WATER VAPOR is the #1 greenhouse gas.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Futurama (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Funny)
..a autonomous robotic fleet of cloud spewers gone astray?
I for one welcome our cloud spewing robotic overlords! We need the rain here in the S. East!
Re:Better idea (Score:3, Funny)
Cabinet-level science question (Score:3, Funny)
Where will the ships get the salt water from?
Re:A Bad Doctor (Score:2, Funny)
It's Lupus!
Re:Cabinet-level science question (Score:1, Funny)
I think we should buy a bunch of salt from our domestic salt-producing mines. Have each ship take the water from the ocean, turn it into freshwater, then we'll add some of the stored salt to make it salt water! Of course, we'll need a lot of energy to turn that unpure seawater into freshwater, so we'll add an onboard generator to produce power using "clean coal"
Brought to you by "salt miners for selling more salt" and "Clean Coal, it's cleaner than just coal, look at the name!"
I happen to own a salt mining company
Re:Absurd. (Score:2, Funny)
This is madness.
THIS ... IS ... SLASHDOT!
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like yelling.
One Idea, Two Exploding Sets Of Heads (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A Bad Doctor (Score:1, Funny)
> 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.
Re:Headline (Score:5, Funny)
They didn't mention that on the Discovery Channel.
Re:Lime... (Score:3, Funny)
Ah... but what if we fired lime, salt, Grand Marnier, Jose Cuervo, and some ice into the sky?
Re:Headline (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Re:That's what? (Score:1, Funny)
But that's unnatural. Gaia, the god of the environuts, will not be appeased.
After all, everyone and everything is just "naturally good".
Re:Headline (Score:2, Funny)
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!
Re:That's what? (Score:5, Funny)
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....
;-)
Re:That's what? (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:That's what? (Score:2, Funny)
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...
Re:Futurama (Score:4, Funny)
And here I thought dropping an ice cube into the ocean was a really far fetched idea and nobody would take it seriously.
Narrator: Of course, since the greenhouse gases are still building up, it takes more and more ice each time, thus solving the problem once and for all.
Susie: But -
Narrator: Once and for all!!
Re:She will. (Score:5, Funny)
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.
But where (Score:3, Funny)
would we get a heroine to inspire such a fleet? She would have to be 50% more beautiful than Helen of Troy...
Re:Much worse (Score:5, Funny)
If she doesn't like it we may have to kill her to save ourselves! :(
Re:That's what? (Score:3, Funny)
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!
Re:She will. (Score:2, Funny)
Futurama (Score:1, Funny)
girl:
ONCE AND FOR ALL!
Re:That's what? (Score:2, Funny)
There should be a "+1, Flamebait, but true" ;)
Question of the week: Do you need fossil fuels to fuel a flame-bait?
Re:That's what? (Score:5, Funny)
When a certain species of animal overmultiplies, and Mother Nature brings a drought,
Oh sure bring religion into it.