Cloud-making ships may reduce global warming | ETA

A scientist at the University of Edinburgh says that a fleet of water-borne cloud makers could help reduce global warming. The unmanned sailing ships would patrol the oceans, spraying tiny droplets of seawater into existing clouds in order to enlarge and thereby whiten them – bouncing more radiation back into space and cooling the atmosphere in the process.

It is claimed that a change in the brightness of marine clouds could cool the earth enough to compensate for the increase in man-made carbon dioxide over the last century.

The ships would operate in a 1500-strong fleet and rotary-sail technology would ensure not only that the vessels were powered by wind and seawater, but that they could easily be operated remotely by computer.