Bill Gates Targets Hurricanes

[weathernms]

Microsoft's Bill Gates, one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution, has now set out on a new venture, to fight hurricanes.

Bill Gates to attempt to control hurricane intensity.


Bill Gates targets hurricanes

[neilpride]

Better for Bill to take care of their bussines and leave the mother nature in peace.
I dont believe in this crazy idea, a hurricane is the most powerfull weather system in this world .
Cooling the sea surface??? collateral damaged to others countrys?
I dont know , sounds crazy to me .

[GordMay]

This isn’t news, science, or invention - it’s merely predatory patent trolling:

➥ Searete a Part of Intellectual Ventures, a Patent-trolling Firm | Boycott Novell

➥ Mr. Burns A.K.A Bill Gates – Hurricane Suppression Technology Patents - Rutilus Allec – Red Herring

➥ IPBiz: WSJ discusses Intellectual Ventures, Myhrvold

These patent applications should be ridiculed, and are very unlikely to be upheld.
They are an attempt to hold up any "such" science to ransome.
The magnitude of effort that would be necessary to alter the surface temperature enough to make a difference would be staggering, given the sheer size of hurricanes, which can be as large as 600 miles across, and the volume of water involved with such an undertaking.
Yet, hurricanes do billions of dollars of damage every year, so it is indeed understandable why entepeneurs, including Bill Gates, are keenly interested in controlling patents that could control these storms.

The various patent applications, all filed on January 3, 2008, by Jeffrey A Bowers; Bill Gates and a team of other inventors, which includes Intellectual Ventures founder Nathan Myhrvold, include:

US Patent Application No. 20090177569, titled: “Water alteration structure risk management or ecological alteration management systems and methods”
➥ United States Patent Application: 0090177569

US Patent Application No. 20090175685, titled: “Water alteration structure movement method and system”
➥ United States Patent Application: 0090175685

US Patent Application No. 20090173801, titled: “Water alteration structure and system having below surface valves or wave reflectors”
➥ United States Patent Application: 0090173801

US Patent Application No. 20090173404, titled: “Water alteration structure and system”
➥ United States Patent Application: 0090173404

US Patent Application No. 20090173386, titled: “Water alteration structure applications and methods”
➥ United States Patent Application: 0090173386

[AtomicPhil]

The worst thing a man can do is try to control nature it self. By doing so it disrupts the cycle of life we were meant to live and die. This is why the world is going true sh*t, including the reefs.

We need it rather then it needs us.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by AtomicPhil

The worst thing a man can do is try to control nature it self...

I don't think Bill's gang is trying to control nature, so much as they're trying to control commerce - through patent extortion.

[Reality Check]

The reality is man has been controlling nature about the time they started using fire and we as a civilization could not live with out many of these controlling features. Think about it, we control the weathers effect now by living in houses, the temperate by our Air Conditioners, the water by our distribution systems and even manufacturing systems such as Desal plants. We control plants by farming. wind with sails and wind mills just to name a few. We control flooding with waterways and building techniques. We control something in almost every element of our day to day activity. Few could live with out these controls... while they think they could, most of the items the now use on a day to day basis would soon not be available.

What the implications are for weather control of hurricanes is something we do not yet know, is it also too soon to say the sky is falling because someone is thinking about it. Almost every major discovery Man has made has had someone who opposed it... right or wrong.

Stopping the growing elevation of the worlds ocean temperatures may be one way we could slow the melt down of the polar caps. While far from the only potential method it could slow the exponential trend enough for other methods to be more effective. No single action that appears to be reasonable possible, has much of a chance by it self.

Before we should jump to the conclusion the sky is falling... look to see if it is not just BS.

[AtomicPhil]

Wait a second by using nature for example for protection or using it for wind is nothing as bad as trying to control it like at first i though bill gates was trying to completly stop hurricanes from forming, is like putting up the sun when needed and night when needed it disrupts things. many cultures has used nature to a point with out destroying it, the way were treating it now, which we by our living standards today, it putting all of us to destruction. I personally put the blame on corporations that are thinking short term money, then thinking long term health, and lives. and goverments not doing as much to put this to an end.

[weathernms]

I really do not agree with idea -- but- I guess Bill Gates would be the right person to at least test the idea out--considering he has the financial means--to really get this going.

But overall nature is nature---hurricanes, floods, tornadoes,etc happen and we just need to be prepared for whatever may head our way.

[AtomicPhil]

id just leave it alone. just give hurrican warnings instead.

[shadow]

I'm with Gord on this one. Being a past member in the industry, I know that bill loves and craves buying up and owning patents, intellectual property, etc.. This has nothing to do with him loving us so much that he wants to help us and save us. He definitely has an agenda with this move.

Definitely unsettling indeed!!

[drew.ward]

If Bill wants to prevent damage from Hurricanes it's easy. All he has to do is run them on Windows and they'll likely make it just about to shore then lock up for some unknown reason and just dissipate.

[Dune]

Attempting to control ocean temperatures in order to lessen the impact of hurricanes is certainly plausible, but highly improbable. The sheer magnitude of this science is incredible. I read once about taking the energy out of the atmosphere that creates tornados. I don't see what useful purpose tornados serve unless it is the random removal of mobile homes to lessen urban blight. I agree that we as a race have modified our environment since we first tread on this planet. It is what separates the human race from other species. I am not saying that it is all a good thing, just a fact. It will be interesting to see where this leads. And, I am not sure I agree with the patent theory. Anyone could and some do continue to push the envelope with new technology. Once again, I am not saying that it is all good.

[Guzzi]

Thinking one can actually play God by controlling the weather is the height of audacity.

This screams to me more about money than controlling the weather, like carbon credits, etc.
Follow the money trail and you'll see the reason for this.

[Blue Stocking]

I would have been interested to hear his theories while standing on my dock here in Bermuda during Fabian. It was gusting to 154 knots, and my 12 ton yawl was 12 ft high up in the mangroves.

[osirissail]

I would have to agree that this is all about covering an area of science with patents so they could reap monetary benefits if anybody actually tries anything. Or it just may be rich guys having some fun after a good drinking party.
Anybody arrogant enough to think they can take on Mother Nature is seriously got an ego problem. The dinosaurs they were "hot sh**t" until Mother Nature took them out with one big rock. The volume of water, the complexity of the ecosystem is beyond anything mere humans can affect with any significance. If you research the climate history of the Earth you will find that the planet was totally devoid of any ice 4 times and almost totally frozen over another 4 times. One of the "hot times" was during the dinosaur reign when Antartica was a tropical jungle. That is why they are finding oil and gas deposits down there. The planet cycles in between those extremes.
Should humans actually start "messing" with ocean water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic - go see the movie "The Day After Tommorrow." Screwing with the temperature of the North Atlantic would upset the N.A. gyre and alter the Gulf Stream. Mess with the Gulf Stream and Europe, England, etc. go back under glaciers or some serious snow accumulations. Hundreds of millions of people would be severely affected, if not killed by such climate change.
As cruisers we are intimately aware of the link between elements of the various ecological cycles. Destroy the reefs by changes salinity, etc., etc., and the little fish have no food and the bigger and bigger fish also have no food and finally we humans have no fish to eat. I don't think Gates and the others are that stupid so I vote that they are trying establish a monetary link into any new science areas that might be developed.