Gates proposal would manipulate seas to fight hurricanes

GreenWire: Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates has attached his name to five patent proposals for manufacturing hurricane preventing technology.

An application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office lists Gates and others as the inventors of a number of methods to control and prevent hurricanes, which involves a process of using fleets of vessels to mix warm water from the surface of the ocean with colder water from greater depths in an effort to cool the surface of the water.

The applications did not just propose dealing with hurricanes. Another proposal involved “wave induced downwelling,” which involves stirring up sediment at the bottom of the ocean in order to encourage plant and animal growth in less environmentally friendly areas.

“This may be used for developing wildlife preservation areas, wildlife recreation areas, restoring wildlife destroyed by natural or man-made causes, etc., ” according to the patent application.

Another proposal seeks to move nutrients and other material from the bottom of the ocean to the surface in an effort to aid the growth of algae to trap carbon, which could be used to combat global warming (Mark Schleifstein, New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 16).