[Sosfbay-discuss] Cellulose Reinforcement of Arctic Ice Proposed

[Wes Rolley]

Brian Good wrote:
>
> http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2009/10/global-warming-cannon-saves-world.html
>
> Pycrete is sawdust-fortified ice developed during WWII by Geoffrey 
> Pyke, who proposed to build aircraft carriers out of it.  It's 5X more 
> resistant to melting than natural ice is. 
>
> Ice reinforced with strips of newspaper is almost 60 times more 
> resistant to melting than natural ice is.
>
Brian,

There are a hundred scatterd geo-engineering ideas floating around.  
Most of them come from someone who heard Spock talk about terra-forming 
a dead planet.

Many of them are simplistic solutions to parts of the problem and have 
significant risks that far exceed their benefits if any benefits accrue 
at all.  It is like Bill Gates suggesting that we tow icebergs into the 
paths of developing hurricanes, cooling the oceans at just that point 
and reducing the risks of disaster.  Declared to be not very feasible if 
for no other reason that it is hard to find an iceberg that is close 
enough to where you need it that you can get it there when you need it. 
Just because Gates understood the PC market does not mean that he 
understands science.

It is good that people think up these ideas and bring them forward.  It 
is not very good to get too excited about them because the explanation 
sounds good on the surface.  

In fact, I am increasingly convinced that the subtitle of Mooney - 
Kirshenbaum's book is so apt:  "Unscientific America: *How Scientific 
Illiteracy Threatens Our Future*. "

-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024