Cloud Ships Stall Global Warming

Putting your thinking caps on, readers, is recommended before immersing yourself in this latest solution to global warming. It may help contain some grey matter in the event that your brain explodes.

A wind-powered fleet of 1,900 ships would criss-cross the oceans, sucking up sea water and spraying it from the top of tall funnels to create vast white clouds.

These clouds would reflect a tiny proportion, between 1 and 2 per cent, of the sunlight that would otherwise warm the ocean. This would be enough to cancel out the greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide emissions. The ships would be unmanned and directed by satellite to locations with the best conditions for increasing cloud cover. They would mainly operate in the Pacific, far enough from land to avoid interfering with rainfall.

The idea has been circulating for a decade but until now has merely been one of many climate engineering pipedreams. A study commissioned by the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, a think-tank that advises governments on how to spend aid money, found that the fleet would cost $9 billion (£5.3 billion) to test and launch within 25 years. This is a fraction of the $250 billion that the world’s leading nations are considering spending each year to cut CO2 emissions.

The Royal Society is expected to announce next month that cloud-forming ships are one of the most promising ideas.

Excuse me for being contrary, but I suggest this idea, as described, is ludicrous.

But, it's worthy of comment. It is given that the schemers want to build 1,900 wind-powered robotic ships with wind-powered pumps to elevate gargantuan quantities of seawater to the top of tall funnels -- within 25 years and all for $9 billion.

Doing the math, $9 billion divided by 1,900 equals somewhat less than $5 million per ship which is phenomenally cheap for an ocean-going vessel and the ships must be maintenance-free. If seafaring crews need to periodically visit the 1,900 cloud-producing ships to replace bearings or grease gears on wind-powered seawater pumps, the cost of the entire endeavor would skyrocket.

The world would run out of cash long before any noticeable impact was achieved, much less than the laughable 1 to 2 percent projected, in the Earth's total cloud cover.

And, still, it's only speculated that the scheme will work. Frankly, I don't believe that mankind has the capacity to prevent the Sun from warming the oceans, which is the basis of the scheme.

Regarding wind power in general, don't be mistaken. I believe wind power is a feasible and economical energy source in certain applications. However, I contend that wind power will never be used to operate 1,900 unmanned marine vessels pumping seawater to tall heights. The cost is too great and the benefit is too vague.

With respect to effectiveness, wind power will continue to be strongest as a political plaster used to trowel over the pesky details of outrageously questionable projects.