Cloud ships: Countering global warming

Global warming and green initiatives are important, as scientists and the human population is getting increasingly conscious about adopting measures to control emissions, etc. As is true with any other project of such a magnitude, finding an effective solution to control green house gas emissions may take at least a few years.

While each of us is required to - and should - do our part in contributing to reducing our carbon footprint, a new research by the Copenhagen Consensus Center discusses a new approach to accelerate the control measures.

Professor Eric Bickel and Lee Lane, in their paper on the subject, discuss a technique called as 'marine cloud whitening' which -

would create clouds above the Pacific Ocean that would have a cooling effect by reflecting sunlight away from Earth.

A wind-powered fleet of nearly 2,000 ships would criss-cross the sea, sucking up sea water and spraying it upwards through tall tunnels.

Special ships that create clouds by spraying seawater into the air could be the most cost effective way of tackling climate change, new research has found.

This is not an alternative to going green anyways, but is more likely to be an approach to mask the effects of global warming, says the author.

For the interested, here's the full story.