Scientist proposes 'colossal refrigeration system' to stave of global-warming

Ron Ace, a 69-year-old, has been researching the earth's climate for years and has found what he calls the most "practical, nontoxic, affordable, rapidly achievable" and beneficial way to curb global warming and a resulting catastrophic ocean rise.

Ace proposes to spray gigatons of sea-water into the air and in effect, build a "a colossal refrigeration system with a 100,000-fold performance multiplier." He contends a number of positive effects would be in action at the same time to help stave off warming.

"The Earth has a giant air-conditioning problem," he said. "I'm proposing to put a thermostat on the planet."

First, the sprayed droplets would transform to water vapor, a change that absorbs thermal energy near ground level; then the rising vapor would condense into sunlight-reflecting clouds and cooling rain, releasing much of the stored energy into space in the form of infrared radiation.

Kenneth Caldeira, a climate scientist for the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University whose computer simulation of Ace's invention suggests it would significantly cool the planet.

The simulated evaporation of about one-half inch of additional water everywhere in the world produced immediate planetary cooling effects that were projected to reach nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit within 20 or 30 years, Caldeira said.

"In the computer simulation, evaporating water was almost as effective as directly transferring ... energy to space, which was surprising to me," he said.

Ace said that the cooling effect would be several times greater if the model were refined to spray the same amount of seawater at strategic locations.

He proposes to install 1,000 or more devices that spray water 20 to 200 feet into the air, depending on conditions, from West African coast, Atlantic Ocean isles, deserts adjoining the African, South American and Mediterranean coasts and other arid or windy sites.

To maximize cloud formation, he'd avoid the already humid tropics, where most water vapor quickly turns to rain.

"It does seem like evaporating water outside the tropics would be more effective," Caldeira said.

Some complications related to releasing huge amounts of water into the air are not well understood, however.

Among the side-effects:

It absorbs latent heat near the earth's surface and transports it to higher altitudes, for a cooling effect.

When it condenses at higher altitudes, it releases the latent heat, which then can radiate into space, producing more cooling.  It's a greenhouse gas, trapping heat and causing warming. It can form low clouds that reflect solar energy, a cooling effect.  It can form more high clouds, which block some sunlight but mostly prevent the release of infrared radiation from below, another warming effect.