Bill Gates To Stop Hurricanes?

Bill Gates, the man who brought us Windows is the same man that will eventually calm hurricanes? That's the plan and according to the U.S. Patent and Trade Office he has submitted five patents that involve slowing hurricanes by using barges to pump cold water from oceans deep to cool the water surface temperatures and therefore causing the hurricane to loose strength before making landfall.

Hurricanes build in magnitude by drawing warm waters from the ocean's surface so what Gates presents is actually feasible and according to hurricane experts it would actually work if done on a massive scale. By cooling the sea surface temperature by as much as 4.5 degrees under the eye of the hurricane, it would actually kill the storm altogether.

The water that would be pumped to the surface would be obtained from 500 feet down where the temperatures range from 27 - 36 degrees and the hot surface water would be pumped down as the cool water is pumped up.

For the whole hurricane killing system to work, you would need to cool a region of over 60 square miles. Furthermore, the so called barges would have to be quick at maneuvering to different parts of the ocean as the hurricane shifts course. To combat the crazy paths hurricanes usually take, the barges will be sail powered and wold be quite maneuverable in terms of where they can go but as far as speed goes, I am not so sure.

While the plans will probably be on the drawing board for many years or even a decade or more, costs must also be calculated to make sure that the costs to build such a system isn't more than the costs it will save in terms of damage by the hurricanes in the number of years they expect the system to operate.

It's definitely an interesting idea and definitely something that I could see in the future.