Rattan factory

This is not the idea of ​​a dreamer but a scientist. Global warming is a problem of the world we live in, so scientists are looking for solutions to fight this phenomenon.

Latham (left) and Salter (right) - (Photo: BBC)

The cloud factory is the idea of ​​Professor John Latham of the University of Manchester, England. This idea came to John very casually while he went out with his son in the mountains. The boy asked his father why the high clouds were bright, and the low clouds were dark. He explained to me that the clouds above reflect light, but light does not reach the lower clouds.

At that time he thought about applying this feature of nature to serve people. The main purpose that John chooses is to prevent global warming and its negative effects. The key to doing this, he says, is to improve the reflectivity of the cloud above.

His method is to control the rain clouds in a low position , which these clouds have a lot on the sea. These are cloud layers, cumulus clouds that do not receive sunlight, are capable of cooling the sea surface. For stronger cooling, it is necessary to increase the cloud's reflectivity, at 3%, which is enough to balance the rise in temperature on the earth. He and his colleagues have found a very simple tool to increase the brightness of the cloud, which is water and salt, which are available at sea. This is both economic and green technology. Increasing the concentration of salt in the clouds increases the brightness of the cloud. To achieve the necessary level of cooling, seawater must be sprayed into spray at different locations on the earth at a speed of 50m ³ / sec.

Cloud factory (Photo: BBC)

John's partner, Stephen Salter (from University of Edinburgh) suggested using a specially designed vessel for this purpose, particularly wind-powered sailing boats . But the power transducer here is not the sail, but the flossers Flettner (named after this rotor-type inventor, Anton Flettner), stands in a vertical position with wind-powered propellers. The collected energy is not used to run the ship but to spray seawater and create clouds with the necessary reflection, the water sprayed in the vapor will pass through the tubes that are the robots.

Under the project, such ships will operate offshore, without much labor to work on the ships, but the number of ships needed worldwide is nearly a thousand. These ships are not large, only about 20m long but very expensive - about 2 million USD each, so the cost of this project needs about several billion dollars. This is just a cost for the ship, but there is also a cost for a satellite control system - a substantial amount of money.

We do not know if we need such a project because currently, the impact of global warming is not clear and not very large. But the warming world is a fact and it is unclear how to handle this, the ' struggle ' with this phenomenon is still a concept. So are these good ideas only possible when humans are no longer enduring?

(Photo: BBC)

Quynh Anh