Could we cool the oceans to snuff out storms?
Ever used a straw to blow bubbles in a drink? One company is scaling up that idea in the hopes of stopping hurricanes in their tracks
Of the many problems climate change poses, rising sea temperatures have the potential to be the most catastrophic. Warmer oceans mean rising sea levels, melting ice caps and more extreme weather events, including hurricanes. But a Norwegian company claims to have a way to mitigate that last one.
OceanTherm, founded by Olav Hollingsaeter, a former naval officer, is developing a system that uses bubbles to cool the sea’s surface by drawing up cold water from the depths.
Hurricanes are created when hot and cold air meet over warm ocean waters of 26.5°C or above. The warmer the water, the more powerful a hurricane can become. But water below 26.5°C has neither the heat nor sufficient levels of evaporation to feed a hurricane, and so will reduce its strength.
OceanTherm’s idea is to lower perforated pipes into the ocean through which to blow compressed air. The air creates bubbles to draw colder water up to the surface. The pipes would be deployed from a fleet of ships patrolling areas of likely hurricane formation – the Gulf of Mexico, for instance – and create a ‘bubble curtain’ in a hurricane’s path to diminish it, or snuff it out altogether.
Norway has been using bubble curtains for years to prevent fjords from freezing in winter (in this case, the bubbles bring warmer water to a surface that’s being chilled by cold air).
OceanTherm’s proposal has yet to be tested on a hurricane and Hollingsaeter admits a lot of research and development is needed to make it viable, but experts are sceptical. “There’s a huge difference between keeping a fjord from icing over and weakening a tropical cyclone with the power of several thousand nuclear bombs,” says Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of earth sciences at University College London.
The practicalities of such a proposition (the number of ships required, getting them to the right place at the right time), not to mention the cost (estimated to be $500m to set up, and over $80m a year to run), would seem to be prohibitive. Although, perhaps less so when weighed against the expected costs of hurricane damage ($54bn annually, according to the US Government’s Congressional Budget Office).
There are cheaper alternatives, however. “The way to mitigate the effects of a landfalling hurricane is via better forecasting, improved land-use planning, more resilient construction, and improved alert and evacuation systems. And slashing emissions so that an overheating climate and ocean don’t drive more powerful and wetter storms,” says McGuire.
“THERE’S A HUGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KEEPING A FJORD FROM ICING OVER AND WEAKENING A TROPICAL CYCLONE”