Ocean climate fix?
Thursday, September 27th, 2007 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddyman Now here’s an interesting thing.
A “quick fix” to climate change proposed by Science Museum head Chris Rapley and Gaia theorist James Lovelock; the idea is simple, if expensive and technologically achievable, if something of an engineering feat. There are potential drawbacks, too, insofar as there may be issues for the larger marine wildlife, particularly whales.
The idea is based upon the simple premise that cold oceanic water is more productive than warm oceanic water (which, I have to say came as a bit of a surprise to me as a layman. Intuitively I would have thought that warm water would support more life, but there we are).
The idea is simply that colder water at the surface will increase sea water absorption of CO2, reducing atmospheric warming and putting a brake on global warming.
The drawback is that estimates suggest that it would take 134 million such pipes to do the work and the technology has to be designed and tested, much less built and deployed. But it’s an interesting idea.
A “quick fix” to climate change proposed by Science Museum head Chris Rapley and Gaia theorist James Lovelock; the idea is simple, if expensive and technologically achievable, if something of an engineering feat. There are potential drawbacks, too, insofar as there may be issues for the larger marine wildlife, particularly whales.
The idea is based upon the simple premise that cold oceanic water is more productive than warm oceanic water (which, I have to say came as a bit of a surprise to me as a layman. Intuitively I would have thought that warm water would support more life, but there we are).
Floating pipes reaching down from the top of the ocean into colder water below move up and down with the swell.
As the pipe moves down, cold water flows up and out onto the ocean surface. A simple valve blocks any downward flow when the pipe is moving upwards.
The idea is simply that colder water at the surface will increase sea water absorption of CO2, reducing atmospheric warming and putting a brake on global warming.
The drawback is that estimates suggest that it would take 134 million such pipes to do the work and the technology has to be designed and tested, much less built and deployed. But it’s an interesting idea.