[extropy-chat] FWD [PvT] Re: Anti-hurricane engineering

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Johnius <Johnius at Genius.UCSD.edu> wrote:
> 	http://winwenger.com/hurrican.htm
> 
> 	"Nearly all the energy which drives a tropical
> disturbance comes 
> 	from warm surface water. Eliminate the warm surface
> water in the 
> 	immediate path-or in the breeding grounds-of a
> hurricane, and 
> 	you eliminate the hurricane. 
> 
> 	A low-cost, low-energy way to eliminate the warm
> surface water, 
> 	where it would otherwise soon be feeding a
> hurricane or other 
> 	tropical disturbance, is to cause the water to
> 'turn over.' 
> 	This is done by pumping compressed air down toward
> gulf or sea
> 	bottom and releasing it. The cooler waters come to
> the top and 
> 	the hurricane loses its energy over them to become
> disorganized
> 	squalls."

Show Me The Numbers.  Most proposals to actively stop
hurricanes underestimate the amount of effort/energy
needed to do appreciable damage to a hurricane, and
thus do not consider whether the costs of that much
energy (financial at least, possibly in lives from
construction and maintenance accidents) exceeds the
costs we currently incur from hurricanes.