Comments on Feeding the World
From the EnergyResourcesGroup at Yahoo, Jimbo writes:
Interesting article. How much energy is required to pump air to 1000 feet deep? How do you hold down a large pipe full of air at 1000 feet deep?
The trouble with good ideas is that they soon degenerate into a lot of hard work.
Jimbo, I agree that an energy analysis is in order.
I was struck by the brilliance of Wenger’s realization that great regions of the ocean are desert. Only the shortage is not of water, but of air.
Just as irrigating a desert causes a desert to bloom, Wenger claims aerating the desert regions of ocean will have a similar effect.
Now the challenge to our engineers is: How to do it?
Do we need to go so deep? What about pumping down just a few hundred feet? Could our ocean oil drilling and extracting technology be used here? But instead of taking oil out, we pump air in?
How about using salts that contain oxygen or carbon dioxide to dissolve when they hit the water? Lots of questions? What do you think ?
Timothy Wilken
