How to stop a hurricane with … old car tires?
One of Britain’s leading marine engineers, Stephen Salter, emeritus professor of engineering design at Edinburgh university and a global pioneer of wave power research, has patented with Microsoft billionaires Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold the idea of using thousands of tyres lashed together to support giant plastic tubes which extend 100m deep into the ocean.
Wave action on the ocean surface would force warm surface water down into the deeper ocean. If non-return valves were used, he says, the result would be to mix the waters and cool the surface temperature of the ocean to under 26.5C, the critical temperature at which hurricanes form.
According to Salter, who has written to the government’s chief scientific officer setting out his scheme, harnessing energy from the waves to cool the surface temperature of the ocean makes ecological sense.
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A hurricane is an atmospheric engine for moving heat from one part of the environment to another.
If that oceanic heat is not dissipated one way, it will be dissipated some other way. Or perhaps just accumulate until it busts loose.
tbrosz on November 4, 2012 at 8:46 PM
There would be zero chance of unforeseen consequences if this were to be implemented.
tom daschle concerned on November 4, 2012 at 8:48 PM
So that’s where the underestimated cost of 0bamacare went to.
Has there ever in history been a recorded incident of beaurocrats making a mistake not in their own favor?
pedestrian on November 4, 2012 at 8:50 PM
I read about this in SuperFreakonomics. The same folks have a plan to eliminate global warming by pumping a small amount of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. Greenies hate him because he comes up with answers that don’t require massive centralization of power in government.
VidOmnia on November 4, 2012 at 8:50 PM
Well, if one were to stuff an old car tire or three in Algore’s ample pie-hole, it would probably make a scientifically measurable difference in the amount of worldwide wind.
hillbillyjim on November 4, 2012 at 8:52 PM
This “Ming” is a psycho.
Ben Hur on November 4, 2012 at 8:52 PM
Oh, I don’t know. Seems to me that, you know, the planet might need hurricanes for a number of reasons, most of which we probably know nothing about.
But by all means, just stumble in there and give it a shot. What could go wrong? It’s SCIENCE.
Dack Thrombosis on November 4, 2012 at 8:57 PM
Do these idiots realize that their schemes are potentially far more damaging to our wonderful blue sphere in orders of magnitude compared to their pretend enemies of Mother Gaia?
I doubt that they can see the forest for the trees, to swipe a phrase.
The oceans, and the world itself, has been and will be spinning through cyclical phases for short-term weather, long-term climate, and even longer-term cycles that we’re just beginning to understand. These patterns and cycles will continue to do what they’re going to do, regardless of we humans, until the Sun does its thing and we’re all toast.
If you are a non-believer in religion and a believer in science, I don’t see how you can logically oppose my above suppositions.
hillbillyjim on November 4, 2012 at 8:59 PM
How do they force the warm water into the ocean underneath? It’s not like a void is going to open up down there for the warm water to pour into. He talks about a no return valve keeping the warm water down there. That just sounds silly.
Buddahpundit on November 4, 2012 at 9:02 PM
Because nature’s not doing it right. It had its chance, but now it’s time for us to take over. How hard could it be?
Left Coast Right Mind on November 4, 2012 at 9:05 PM
Huh? Car tires don’t float – they sink. What are they talking about?
Here’e an idea, let’s just fill in the world’s oceans with old car tires and other assorted junk – No oceans, No hurricanes! Problem solved … and I’m not even a billionaire … yet!
Pork-Chop on November 4, 2012 at 9:06 PM
Maybe they should set off a nuke under the water surface right underneath the eye. I don’t know what would happen but it wouldn’t hurt too much to try it, if it’s a remote hurricane heading away from land. Maybe it would disrupt the system and the thing would fall apart.
I wonder if the agitation from the nuke would actually provide more cooling than the heat it provides. Probably not, but maybe if the water is extra hot from the nuke it over charges the hurricane system to the point where it falls apart when it crosses what will then become relatively cooler water as it moves on.
Buddahpundit on November 4, 2012 at 9:29 PM
So, cool the surface waters to make sure hurricanes don’t form….which decreases evaporation, making the air drier….which means there’s less rain….and we get a massive drought.
Great move, guys! Why don’t you get right on that?
cthulhu on November 4, 2012 at 9:41 PM
Psychic control of schools of fish by teams of trained espers!
They could telekinetically guide the finny hordes to circulate counter-clockwise in the Gulf Stream and make it reverse course during hurricane season to send storms harmlessly out to sea.
Sure fire stuff!
profitsbeard on November 4, 2012 at 9:46 PM
about as stupid as this…
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/commercial-ocean-fertilization-project-halted/?ref=technology
Kaptain Amerika on November 4, 2012 at 9:48 PM
Man’s hubris will be it’s end. In some very distant future when another species is examining our fossilized remains, they’ll wonder how we died out while living on a lush planet with so many resources.
ButterflyDragon on November 4, 2012 at 9:49 PM
IrishEyes on November 4, 2012 at 9:55 PM
… and here I was trying to train the neighbors’ goldfish to fetch me a beer (while holding its breath, of course.)
I guess I should aim higher and LEAN FORWARD.
N O T !!
hillbillyjim on November 4, 2012 at 9:59 PM
File this under “What could go wrong?”
Note that the same inventor proposed to combat global warming by sending out hundreds of ships to spray a fine mist of water high into the air, thus reflecting more sunlight back into space.
For review, The Law of Unintended Consequences:
That’s why “smart” people create the biggest problems. They think they can accurately predict what will happen when they mess with nature. Idiots.
Splashman on November 4, 2012 at 10:08 PM
And the Sierra Club is OK with this?
Knott Buyinit on November 4, 2012 at 10:11 PM
If women and blacks can vote for Obama/Biden, then yes, the Sierra Club will be okay with tires in the ocean.
(My point is, for liberals, principles are useful only as a smokescreen to gain power.)
Splashman on November 4, 2012 at 10:15 PM
Aye Know !!!!!
.
Let’s try these devices in Lock Ness for about 20 years before springing them on the unsuspecting cetaceans in the world’s oceans and seas. That should provide a lot of data including the reactions of crazy Scotsmen to tyres floating in deep water unattended. Maybe they will catch Nessie.
ExpressoBold on November 4, 2012 at 10:20 PM
And if it does not work they can be charged with mass murder at the next hurricane that does not care that the temperature is a few degrees C different than in 1950′ and follows the same path as Sandy.
tjexcite on November 4, 2012 at 10:33 PM
Shit upon the Sierra Club. They know not what they do.
We’ve got one of those supposed Sierra Club nature-lovers around here who insists on writing letters to the editor of the local rag on a regular basis.
Needless to say, I feel obligated to shred every sentence that she
pukeswrites for the next day, and have no intention of doing otherwise.The hell of it is is that she’s not even from these parts; she’s been sponsored to move here and to pretend to be a longtime resident. It’s lying deception, to be generous. Actually it’s lying, deceitful, law-defying, hate-filled, class-warfare mongering horse hockey, with chili-bean farts blended in for effect.
The more that I learn, the more that I’m convinced that most liberals have NO HONOR AND NO SHAME.
Not to worry, we’ve got common sense and karma on our side.
It’s my experience recently that people are damned sick of being lied to by our highest officials. They’ve got to go down the dusty trail of has-beens, ASAP.
Hell, I’m still terrified of what the lame-duck Ojugears will attempt to accomplish between the day of his demise (NOV. 6th) at the polls and the Inauguration of his replacement. I hope that the true patriots in Congress are ready and willing to defy the would-be tyrant until he’s deposed and powerless to do his evil worst.
hillbillyjim on November 4, 2012 at 10:42 PM
I know the Sierra Club isn’t going to go for that!
profitsbeard on November 4, 2012 at 11:05 PM
By all means, let’s curtail rainfall. What a splendid proposal.
DarthBrooks on November 5, 2012 at 12:24 AM
What could go worng?
trigon on November 5, 2012 at 12:51 AM
Wow, you mean, just like that, boom! it works? Why didn’t we try this decades ago?
stukinIL4now on November 5, 2012 at 1:38 AM
“This new learning amazes me. Tell me again how sheep’s bladders can be employed to prevent earthquakes.”
– King Arthur
Odysseus on November 5, 2012 at 7:37 AM