Deep Ocean Cooling Water

Dear Bret Cahill:

The link got cut off, and doesn't work.

I worry about creating harmful thermals in the ocean.

David A. Smith

Try

< I worry about creating harmful thermals in the ocean

The ocean already is the largest sink for increases in atmospheric heat, but everyone will agree, if the Gulf Stream shifted it could be a major disaster.

On the other hand if all you got was a permanent El Nino, that might be perferable to global warming.

I haven't done any calculations but the heat capacity of hundreds of cubic miles of sea water should wipe out any temperature increase in the atmosphere due to global warming. It would take a century or two before the water on the sea floor increases enough to threaten sea floor critters, even assuming they acquire much popular appeal.

They draw off the bottom of Lake Powell and the Colorado R. is now cold year round downstream of the dam. Half the local species of fish disappeared because they required some warm water some of the time, maybe 10 F more than what they get now in summer.

You could generate power as you reduce the temperature of the biosphere.

The thermal efficiency would be low and the power plant would need to be huge but it might be cost effective.

Bret Cahill

"N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc)" wrote

Yes. There is a mistake in the above URL.

John

Dear Bret Cahill:

Maybe we could turn Arridzona into a rain forest?

Stability in weather patterns is nice for insurance companies. Not so good for eco-systems.

Not really. Consider gas solubility. That is the danger for "sea floor critters", and all gilled life. Not getting cooked, but the equivalent of being moved to higher and higher altitidues.

The link?

David A. Smith

Maybe this will work.

Bret Cahill

Dear Bret Cahill:

It did. I find that the following sequence helps long links survive: < URL: the link

... then enter. No carriage returns (or spaces) between them, I only did that so it would survive posting. URL:

Craven sounds like R. Buckminster Fuller. They were both in the Navy. I wonder if there was a connection?

David A. Smith

I don't see much in the way of power generation. What cost effective engine or power plant could use a 34 F - 90 F temperature difference?

The ac and fresh water would be valuable in all those poor hot humid highly populated areas near the ocean. Make the pipe big and insulated and run it 20 - 50 miles inland and back. Fish seem to thrive on any interface, fresh water flowing into salt water, cold in warm, so the waste cold may have some value.

The heat sink for the atmosphere may be the most valuable part.

Bret Cahill

This would work in arid regions near the water.

Just warm some sea water in the sun and condense it with the cold sea water.

Bret Cahill