Monday, 06 July 2009

• British engineer fights global warming using clouds, Scotland may actually rain harder

  You can probably say that the Simpsons already did it, but they certainly didn't go for the easier route to block the sun. Last weekend Professor Stephen Salter of Edinburgh University proposed his global warming solution to The Manchester Report conference: create clouds to cover the sea using cloudseeding ships. That's right, this weird looking vessel will suck up seawater and spray it into the atmosphere, thus creating low-level clouds that will reflect some sunlight back into the dark cold space. 

  While it may sound like something that even a bunch of kids can do using their water pistols, the geoengineer pointed out that they need to "increase the reflectivity by about 3%" (i.e. they need to cover a huge area of the sea) in order to cancel out the "increased CO2 in the atmosphere".

  Now that we've warned you, don't bother calling the police when you see a huge fleet of these water-spraying yatchs in a few years' time.

  [Image courtesy of 21stcenturychallenges.org]

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