Combat Global Warming with Evaporative Cooling

we have wind farms here in Ellensburg

Brilliant idea!

'There are concerns about carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in the process of making the concrete for the turbines."

Concrete = sand, gravel, cement, water. That's it. Where's the Co2 thats going to be released into the air?

What a wonderful article, thanks Sam!

Good idea! There are 25 of these giants on the mountain just above me.

Colonel George W.: "Where's the Co2 thats going to be released into the air?"

The production of cement, the primary component of concrete, accounts for 5 to 10 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions, according to M.I.T.

There's a link underneath the article to a carbon-negative method of manufacturing concrete.

There'll be a lot more coastline after global warming raises the sea level.

We attended a seminar on wind turbines earlier this year. My husband wants to erect one in our backyard. I know the benefits would be immense but I am not holding my breath.

sounds good in theory

It won't work. The heat is not radiated into space by evaporative cooling, it is absorbed by the water, and transported to some other place on earth, and released when the water vapor condenses. That is how hurricanes get their power. It is how heat is moved from the oceans inland. Energy is neither created nor destroyed except in nuclear reactions.

Sure, Karl, no claim was made that this surplus energy was somehow going to disappear or be shot into space or so. Eventually, water will fall back into the sea or it will fall on the ground and return to the sea through rivers, etc. But for as long as it lasts, the extra evaporation thus produced will have had a cooling effect. And as long as the turbines keep evaporating water, this cooling effect will continue.

Similarly, as wind turbines capture the energy contained in the wind and as this energy remains stored in the form of hydrogen, this will have a slight cooling effect, as opposed to the energy of the wind heating up rocks and trees by means of friction.

Greater humidity thus produced could cause more rain to fall in arid areas, causing vegetation there to grow better, holding the water longer and capturing carbon from the atmosphere in the process. As the artticle says, evaporation will work most effectively in hot and dry areas, such as where deserts or dry areas meet the sea or lakes. Solar power from such a desert could run the turbines and, as more vegetation will grow, the temperature will go down there and the area will be able to produce food, etc.

Actually, some of that energy could be directed into space, Karl, in the form of microwaves. It could be pointed at Mars, as I suggested in early 2005. This will have a terraforming effect on Mars. Although this effect may be minimal, it could release some heat pressure from Earth and it could invigorate plans to go to Mars. But the idea in the above article does not make such suggestions.

Good idea

thank you!

West Texas could certainly use some wind turbines since it has no native trees and is flat (similar to the ocean) so there is often wind there. Since I grew up in west Texas I know the locals would not object to the wind turbines since they had lots of windmills for use a well pumps for their stock tanks. :-)

Good Idea

Wind farms exist all over the EU! Global warming doe snot need to be cobatted! It is a natural phenoma that occurs 2000-5500 years prior to every ice age on this planet. We are overdue for the upcoming ice age but the GW is aharbringer of it's coming...!

Swales and even augur-drilled simple holes are helping some desert areas retain water on the ground so it stays longer where it falls to nourish plant life. Once plant life is established, it mitigates climate and can produce copious amounts of dew in mini-climates that can then expand.

I commend Gaia's Garden, by Toby Hemenway, the cover of which is a converted lawn in Los Alamos, New Mexico, which illustrates the point.

New Mexico also has some wonderful left-over projects from the 70's. My son lived in a house with a trombe wall which produced the most wonderful heat. Apparently double-glazing heated it up too much, and someone removed the second layer of glass.

Another interesting idea for creating heat is the use of compost. It is possible to run coils that heat water through compost. In areas where yard debris and leaf fall are great, this could be an option.

Living roofs are another choice. They provide insulation and evaporative cooling. The most common plants for living roofs are sedums, which can store water. Some kinds of sedum are edible as well.

Thanks for the posting. I gave you a ten.

This is a good idea, I wonder why, we don't see more of this already. I would love for us to be able to conserve energy, in a way that is cheap and safe for us to use as well as safe for the environment.
Good article

Thanks for your comments, Mary, Vicky, and others, I'm just floating such ideas because few people seem to do so. I get the impression that people are hesitant to float ideas, because they are afraid to be attacked, ridiculed and harassed by the huge lobby of proponents of polluting industries that doesn't want clean, safe and renewable alternatives. Just have a look at some of the responses I got on my articles the Nuclear Delusion and Tax the sale of meat! and Communities without Roads.

Also, the first thing that springs to mind about keeping turbines turning is that it will cost energy. People are not used to think about solutions that cost energy, we all try to save electricity now because most electricity now comes from polluting coal-fired power plants. But once we've made the shift to better alternatives, there will be an abundance of clean, safe and renewable energy that is available on demand day and night. We need to think in terms of such an abundance of electricity, because we'll need plenty of electricity in future, not merely to replace the energy now generated by coal-fired power plants, but also to power electric cars, to power water desalination plants, to create hydrogen, for temperature management in buildings as well as in the greenhouses we need in our gardens, etc.

In conclusion, wind turbines have a tremendous potential. They can potentially generate 72 TW, or over fifteen times the world's current energy use and 40 times the world's current electricity use.

Sorry Sam, I'd have to see something to validate this claim before I could believe it.

I wonder why, we don't see more of this already.

Two words Vickey-- "FINANCIAL VIABILITY."

I anticipated that some people would be interested in more background on these calculations, jJack, that's why I added the following two links underneath the article:

Wind power - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power

Evaluation of global wind power
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/winds/global_winds.html

On financial viability, the way this is so frequently pictured by those who make profits from fossil fuel and nuclear power does exclude important cost elements such as police and military support, compensation of victims and environmental damage. For some recent discussions on this, check my my recent article the Nuclear Delusion.

As discussed, wind turbines could be used for evaporate purposes, with some cooling effect. There is also potential to use surplus energy from wind turbines to mitigate global warming, either by sending this energy into space in the form of microwaves, or by increasing cloud coverage.

Let me explain the latter. When there's much wind at night, offshore wind turbines could produce more energy then is needed on the grid. Such surplus power could be stored and - at times when there's little wind - used to pump up sea water and have this sprayed by the turbines as a fine mist over the water. This spray will contain tiny particles of sea-salt that get sucked up into the air, especially when there's little wind and sunshine causes rising currents of air. These little salt particles will attract further droplets of water from the surrounding air, forming clouds that are lighter in color from space than sea water (see albedo comparison below, from Wikipedia).



In early 2006, I wondered to what extent such increased cloud coverage could mitigate global warming. On the one hand, the extra clouds will reflect more sunlight back into space, but on the other hand water vapor is itself a greenhouse gas. While the albedo difference between clouds and sea water is obvious, some of the evaporated water could rise higher up into the atmosphere and increase humidity of cirrus clouds at high
altitudes, thus trapping the heat underneath and heating up Earth even further through the greenhouse effect. Also, such evaporation could cause unwanted salty rain to fall over land.

Has anyone done any modeling on this?
Cheers! Sam Carana.

I have meanwhile discussed the above idea of making clouds with wind turbines at Google's geoengineering group. One of the ideas that came up there is to build vortex towers in the desert and use the energy thus generated (partly) to pump seawater to the towers and spray water into the sky. This can have the dual benefits of resulting in albedo change and enhancing soil fertility leading to more carbon being drawn from the atmosphere.

Has anyone seen any research that might be applicable to these ideas?
Cheers, Sam Carana

Hi everyone.. I read all the Comments.. the fact is I Know the cause of Global Change. My study shows, this event is truth: The temperature of the Sun is raising, Mass of ice is melting, For the record: In 2009 the ice sheet is now melting 10 time faster then any scientist predicted. within two month from March and April an area larger than Rhode Island has broking, 1, 300 Square miles of ice. Sea Level is at a rise. Most of the Coasted area are in danger. Mass of Storm showing up with super cell that will look like a hurricane. Plus more Events.. Scientist predict yet again, this event will happen in this century some where in 2050 60 or 70, going to the next 21 Century. Once Again the events is truth but there predict is base on computer and other machines. The time table show when this event should happen. News Flash: is happening in out century and in out time. Scientist time table was either wrong or something else is in play and caught NASA by surprises. I have study Global Warming over 20 years, to know, within two month time in 2009 the sun ray is increasing higher and in most part that would explain why the ice sheet is melting faster then the following years. And what cause the sun to get even hotter? beside the ray sun is tap in the earth because of green house gasses and can not bounce right back up. That one part to the story. lets not forget Global Warming was accident, it was not meant to happen. Climate Change on the other hand suppose to happen. But not even NASA or Scientist around the world thought when climate change happen, Earth Magnetic Field is wreaking. increasing more ray from the sun heating the earth plant cause all ice to melt faster then anyone predicted. Now instead having two major problem we now have 3 mayor problem. Earth Magnetic Field has show weakness scene the 1990. What make the Magnetic shield? Ice, the magnetic field is created deep in the Earth's core. It streams out near the South pole, loops around the planet, and then runs back into the core near the north magnetic pole. This is the Earth's protective force field. Without it, we'd be in trouble. While the poles are in midflip, the earth will have much weaker magnetic field than normal, allowing more solar and cosmic radiation to penetrate. It seems the Earth Magnetic Field is rapidly fading, a puzzle that is challenging scientists around the globe. This is not a prediction: In the year of Dec 2012, Earth will change dramatically, life itself will change. Is the year when the sun will line with the milky way and the earth is changing itself and Earth Magnetic will no longer be there, from the north but move to the south. while the change is taken in place, Mass of storm will be out of control, earthquake, volcano, sea level and of course the sun rays, it will seem like the end is near. But is not. Earth is our mother, and she is very much alive. and she will fix herself even if it cause life on earth. There is nothing no one can not do to stop this event. As for now, more event is going to happen. Starting this year 2009 until 2013. Facts! at the moment NYC and all the Eastern Coast will suffer with a major storm and will flood the Eastern coast sometime this year or the next. Also remember, more ice melted meaning more new virus and anything that was trap inside the ice is also something to be aware of. Facts: Although this event is cause by us, know one Now can not say:, but more usually event is happen and more sighting from space is also unclear. UFO. People just remember, from time to time no one though we will have a Black President, No one ever though about Earth Magnetic Field, This is a new Error. We now can't expect but the unexpected. UFO sighting has rise from a scale 1 to 10 is now a 9. So why now, when the Earth now is not in good shape. This are all different scale of event that can and will happen. When it does, you will know where to reach me at.. kaiba371@aim.com. or gather .com.. Until then.