Tyler Hamilton, a journalist at the Toronto Star, reports on the fascinating ideas being put forth by a retired engineer named Louis Michaud. The 66-year-old Michaud believes it is possible to create and control full-scale tornadoes and harness their power as electricity. He claims the cost of energy generated by his tornadoes would be well below that from coal-powered plants.
As big as this idea might sound, the inventor actually has something much bigger in mind:
He says down the road, hundreds of vortex engines could be located in the ocean along the equator, where the warm tropical water would provide an endless source of energy.
Why would anyone do such a thing?
To cool the planet, Michaud says. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are what prevent the sun’s heat from radiating back into space, he explains. A series of controlled tornadoes along the equator would carry that heat to the outer edges of the atmosphere, where it could more easily escape.
In other words, Michaud believes man-made tornadoes could function as exhaust systems for the planet, a massive air conditioner that could help manage global warming.
This is probably too good to be true, but all you need is one big idea like this to work. If that happens, all the gloom and doom and real economic sacrifice associated with global warming becomes a small footnote in the history books. Technology and human ingenuity have solved just about every problem we’ve faced so far; there is no obvious reason why global warming shouldn’t succumb as well.
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This is too recent to have been included in 1990′s “Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over the Edge” by Ed Regis.
As I recall, one of the “slightly over the edge” ideas was to harness the power of black holes.
This is too recent to have been included in 1990′s “Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition: Science Slightly Over the Edge” by Ed Regis.
As I recall, one of the “slightly over the edge” ideas was to harness the power of black holes.
Seems like, from a speculative perspective that’d work in regards to energy production and (maybe) global warming. The technology to create, control, and the hardest part, harness energy from, a tornado would be fascinating to see someone attempt to create.
Seems like, from a speculative perspective that’d work in regards to energy production and (maybe) global warming. The technology to create, control, and the hardest part, harness energy from, a tornado would be fascinating to see someone attempt to create.
From the Star article, this Vortex idea sounds absolutely ideal! Any physicists out there who can lend expertise as to how practical it is?
What a cool find.
From the Star article, this Vortex idea sounds absolutely ideal! Any physicists out there who can lend expertise as to how practical it is?
What a cool find.
While I agree that we shouldn’t stop thinking of novel, if half-baked, ideas for solving humanity’s problems, climate change is too urgent and complex a problem to leave our hope in some idea that may never come to fruition. As much as people hate to hear it, we would be better served to take a number of smaller, less dramatic steps now than to wait for a silver bullet that may never come. There are a number of steps whose marginal cost of abatement are lower than the marginal cost of polluting that we can and should implement immediately. I don’t want to discourage creative thinking, but let’s take care of the basics too.
While I agree that we shouldn’t stop thinking of novel, if half-baked, ideas for solving humanity’s problems, climate change is too urgent and complex a problem to leave our hope in some idea that may never come to fruition. As much as people hate to hear it, we would be better served to take a number of smaller, less dramatic steps now than to wait for a silver bullet that may never come. There are a number of steps whose marginal cost of abatement are lower than the marginal cost of polluting that we can and should implement immediately. I don’t want to discourage creative thinking, but let’s take care of the basics too.