James Lovelock’s plan to pump ocean water to stop climate change is reported in the UK’s Daily Telegraph today, 27th September.
A plan to save our world from extreme climate change by pumping cold water from the depths of the oceans is outlined today by James Lovelock, the scientist who inspired the greens.
James Lovelock is best known for his ideas that portray Earth as a living thing, a super-organism – named Gaia, after the ancient Earth goddess – in which creatures, rocks, air and water interact in subtle ways to ensure the environment remains stable.
Today Lovelock, of Green College, Oxford University, outlines an emergency way to stimulate the Earth to cure itself with Chris Rapley, former head of the British Antarctic Survey who is now the director of the Science Museum, London.
They believe the answer lies in the oceans, which transport much more heat than the atmosphere and, covering more than 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface.
They propose that vertical pipes some 10 metres across be placed in the ocean, such that wave motion would pump up cool water from 100-200 metres depth to the surface, moving nutrient-rich waters in the depths to mix with the relatively barren warm waters at the ocean surface.
This would fertilise algae in the surface waters and encourage them to bloom, absorbing carbon dioxide greenhouse gas while also releasing a chemical called dimethyl sulphide that is know to seed sunlight reflecting clouds.
Read more.
The article is derived from Lovelock and Rapley’s correspondence in this weeks Nature magazine.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Ingenious but did we not go through this recently http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/002242.html
Not quite the same idea, is it?
Well would it not impact on circulation patterns as discussed in the previous Jen’s post listed. Effects of all these modifications are not uniform – some areas may get wetter some drier. You’d have to – gulp – shock – swallow – “model the outcomes”. LOL
And did I remember that Australia would get drier again as a result of the previous discussion?
I remember reading a book on the coming ice age, back in the 70’s, I think, where a similar idea was proposed.
The lunatic scheme on that occasion was to pump water from very deep, using nuclear power, the theory being that the cold deep water would be warmed by the sun, thus increasing the heat content of the oceans and hence preventing the next glacial.
I can’t remember the book or the author, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was James Lovelock!
Let’s not rule anything out – after all we’re told it’s Armageddon if we do nothing.
So time to think the unthinkable;
1. Nuclear replacement of existing coal fired power plants
2. Massive increase in the harvesting, use and re-growth of timber
3.Big increase in research funding for renewables and fusion
4.Wave powered oceanic heat exchange units!
Wow Jim a postive set of suggestions. I’m impressed.
Always trying to be positive, open minded and rational Luke.
There’s not a lot of it here.
Jim and Luke are in the pay of:
1. Nuclear
2. Timber
3. Renewables
4. Fusion
5. Wave powered oceanic heat exchange units!
We cannot believe anything they say. The kind of money behind power generation schemes buys a lot of influence.
Of course, Luke and Jim will deny receiving $millions from the cruel purveyors of capitalistic demagoguery and wage-slavism, and even their silence will not disprove their paid-for advocacy. The proof is abundant in what they say.
Oops, I forgot:
6. Ex-Soviet neo-Marxists.
I’m certainly not going to be silent Schiller!
My cheque hasn’t arrived yet – Luke you good for a loan?
I’ll collect at the next neo-Marxist meeting.