5 ways to save the world

[smiles 0]

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5 WAYS TO SAVE THE WORLD
Sunday March 11 at 10pm ET/PT on CBC Newsworld

http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/feature_110307.html

If global warming continues to escalate at the current rate, many fear the effects could be catastrophic. Five Ways to Save the World features five of the world's top scientists and the revolutionary scientific inventions they believe could stop global warming and prevent worldwide disaster. In Five Ways to Save the World, computer-generated imagery allows each scientist to fully describe his radical approach to a solution.

Professor Roger Angel from Arizona, designer of the world's largest telescope, proposes putting a giant glass sunshade in space to deflect a small portion of the sun's rays back into space. Dutch Professor Paul Crutzen won the Nobel Prize for chemistry after discovering the causes of the hole in the ozone layer. His plan is to fire hundreds of rockets loaded with tons of sulphur into the stratosphere creating a vast, but very thin sunscreen of sulphur around the earth. British atmospheric physicist Professor John Latham and engineer Stephen Salter have designed a fleet of remote-controlled yachts that will pump fine particles of sea water into clouds, increasing the thickness of the clouds and reflecting the suns rays.

The remaining geniuses want to tackle the problem of excess carbon dioxide it the air. Sydney engineer Professor Ian Jones proposes to feed plankton with gallons of fertilizer, causing the plankton to grow and absorb carbon dioxide from the air. And New York-based Professor Klaus Lackner has designed a carbon dioxide capturing machine and plans to locate them across the globe. The machine would suck in carbon dioxide and turn it into a powder, burying it deep under the ocean in disused oil and gas fields.

Ironically, most of the scientists are reluctant advocates of these ideas, and all believe global citizens should cut down on the use of fossil fuels to heat homes and drive cars. But is time running out for the planet? Viewers will find out in Five Ways to Save the World.

I liked the design of pumping fine particles of sea water into clouds, increasing the thickness of the clouds and reflecting the suns rays.......
Can revolutionary scientific inventions "save the world?"


SMiles

eustress. : a positive form of stress having a beneficial effect on health, motivation, performance, and emotional well-being.

[Armour666 0]

as a skydiver your advacating clouds I've some of these pland In popular mechanics some seam plausable and some seams we would only be making more problems with the sloutions. Or we can buils a huge shilde like Highlander II: The Quickening

SO this one time at band camp.....

"Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the most."

[billvon 3,070]

>I liked the design of pumping fine particles of sea water into clouds,
>increasing the thickness of the clouds and reflecting the suns rays......

I wonder about the persistence of salt water in the air. If it persists for a long time, I'd wonder about how many crops can handle more-saline rain.

[Andy9o8 2]

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>I liked the design of pumping fine particles of sea water into clouds,
>increasing the thickness of the clouds and reflecting the suns rays......

I wonder about the persistence of salt water in the air. If it persists for a long time, I'd wonder about how many crops can handle more-saline rain.

No problem - we can grow potato chips, a boundless food supply.

[billvon 3,070]

>No problem - we can grow potato chips, a boundless food supply.

That's true. And margarita glasses left outside will develop a tasty frosting of salt on their rims!

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Increasing the amount of sunlight reflected back into space from the tops of thin, low-level clouds (marine stratocumuli, which cover about a quarter of the world's oceanic surface), would produce a cooling effect.

Fine droplets of sea-water - about a 10,000th of a centimetre in size - would be sprayed from cylinders
on cloud-seeding yachts. The amount of cooling could be controlled, via satellite measurements and a computer model.

Professor Stephen Salter has developed plans for a novel form of spray-droplet production (involving high-velocity propulsion of sea-water droplets), and has designed a wind-powered unmanned vessel which can be remotely guided to regions where cloud seeding is most favourable. In order to produce adequate cooling, we need to spray sea-water droplets continuously over a significant fraction of the world's oceanic surface, at a total rate of around 50 cubic metres per second.

At a recent Nasa meeting - it seems likely to be a strong contender in the fight to improve the current global warming problem worldwide.

SMiles

eustress. : a positive form of stress having a beneficial effect on health, motivation, performance, and emotional well-being.

[rehmwa 2]

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Highlander II: The Quickening

any highlander movie after the 1st one is obviously just a set of fake images designed to make everyone think the movie concept is stupid

I refuse to acknowledge them - nor to acknowledge the TV series in any way

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[billvon 3,070]

>Increasing the amount of sunlight reflected back into space from the
>tops of thin, low-level clouds (marine stratocumuli, which cover about a
>quarter of the world's oceanic surface), would produce a cooling effect.

During the day! At night they produce a warming effect. Indeed, thin clouds reflect IR much more effectively than visible light, so you'd have to make sure you control your cloud formation carefully. I'd also wonder about the power required. I calculate 50 megawatts to get the sort of water vapor in the air you're talking about, and if that comes from oil, well - you're causing some of the problems you're trying to avoid!

OTOH it could be an interesting way to mitigate droughts in coastal areas.

[DaVinci 0]

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I refuse to acknowledge them - nor to acknowledge the TV series in any way

Movies I agree. But the TV show was OK.

The problem I have with these "fixes" just how ivy was thought to be a great addition to a garden.

***Problems are greater in North America, where trees may be overwhelmed by the ivy to the extent they are killed; this could be because ivy in North America, being introduced, is without the natural pests and diseases that control its vigour in its native areas. A more serious problem is that ivy creates a vigorous, dense, shade-tolerant evergreen groundcover (precisely the characteristics for which it is often cultivated) that can spread over large areas and outcompete native vegetation"

[smiles 0]

Futuristic fleet of 'cloudseeders'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/6354759.stm

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-ecologically benign; the only raw material required being sea-water.

-a wind-powered unmanned vessel which can be remotely guided to regions where cloud seeding is most favourable.

-Instead of sails, these vessels use a much more efficient technique to power the yacht - Flettner rotors. These spinning vertical cylinders mounted on the deck are named after their inventor, Anton Flettner. They also house the spraying system which sprays sea-water droplets from the top of the rotors.

-The power required for spraying, communications and so on comes from electricity generated by turbines dragged along by the vessels.

I'd also like to wonder!


-fake plastic trees that mimic our natural carbon capturers

-pumping sea water into the clouds

-launching sulpher rockets
Creating a 'sulphur screen'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/6369971.stm

-deflective global sunshades

-feeding urea to the ocean phytoplankton
Multiplying the ocean's CO2 guzzlers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/6369401.stm


SMiles

eustress. : a positive form of stress having a beneficial effect on health, motivation, performance, and emotional well-being.

[Andy9o8 2]

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Professor Stephen Salter

Tell me that's not really his name.