Hurricane protection: The windmills of your mind
HOMELAND security is a strange beast. Governments will happily spend billions of dollars fighting foreign wars and making the lives of travellers miserable with layer upon layer of security at airports. Yet, as Britain’s farmers have recently discovered, those same governments will also happily skimp on basic flood defence. What, it is worth considering, might be done if military-sized budgets were to be deployed against natural, as well as human threats?
If an odd couple of trillion dollars were hanging around in some Treasury official’s back pocket, Mark Jacobson of Stanford University has a suggestion about how to spend them. He would use them to build a specially designed wind farm off the coast of Louisiana, to protect New Orleans and its neighbours from hurricanes. Katrina, after all, killed 1,833 people. That is more than 60% of the number who died in the attacks of September 11th 2001. More trillions would bring more defence; all along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, if required.
Dr Jacobson’s calculations, which he describes in Nature Climate Change, depend on a clear understanding of how hurricanes work. Turbines would steal energy from them, of course, which would make them somewhat less destructive. But that would not be enough to have a big effect. However, by extracting this energy from the winds in a storm’s leading edge, serried rows of turbines hundreds of kilometres long would also calm the water over which the hurricane’s eye—its driving force—subsequently passed.
The Latest on: Hurricane protection
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Hurricane protection” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Hurricane protection
- Should you get flood insurance if you're not in a floodplain? What to know before hurricane season.on April 27, 2024 at 8:26 am
Those homes have protection options no matter how many times they've flooded ... Private insurers may also institute a moratorium in the days leading up to a hurricane or other natural disaster to ...
- Free tree distribution event helps residents impacted by hurricaneson April 27, 2024 at 5:28 am
Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department along with Million Trees Miami-Dade County, on Mar. 16, distributed 250 trees at City Furniture’s Dadeland location. The tree giveaway ...
- With hurricane season approaching, tip on protecting your single-family homeon April 26, 2024 at 11:15 am
A large part of living in Florida includes being well aware of the possibility that hurricanes and tropical storms will affect our State during the summer and early fall months ...
- New Georgia tenant bill adds more protection for renterson April 25, 2024 at 6:32 pm
WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — This week, Gov. Brian Kemp signed a new bill that give renters more protection against their landlords. House Bill 404 says, in part, that landlords have to wait three days after ...
- Forecasters predict record number of hurricaneson April 25, 2024 at 11:59 am
Weather forecasters at the University of Pennsylvania predicted a record hurricane season for 2024 on Thursday, a “hyperactive” season that could threaten the Gulf Coast.
- Escorted to Walmart's asset protection office, then escorted to the ground and handcuffedon April 25, 2024 at 9:22 am
A case of shoplifting at a Walmart led to an escape in a golf cart and much more serious criminal charges, authorities say.
- How hurricanes threaten forests — and the carbon markets that depend on themon April 24, 2024 at 11:20 am
A single hurricane barreling into New England forests can undo decades of carbon storage, a new study has found. As climate change heats oceans and fuels hurricanes, worsening storms with ...
- Gov. DeSantis expands program to help Floridians harden homes against hurricaneson April 24, 2024 at 10:32 am
The My Safe Florida Home program provides up to $10,000 in state grants to match whatever homeowners are paying to harden their homes against storms.
- Levee authority tells Corps not to repair lakefront pumps during hurricane seasonon April 20, 2024 at 2:00 am
The east bank regional levee authority has formally asked the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent contractors from rebuilding pumps at the 17th Street Canal lakefront pumping station during the ...
- Mission possible: Bonnet House raises enough funds to get hurricane protection, make other repairson April 18, 2024 at 6:23 am
Bonnet House, the beloved historic gem near Fort Lauderdale’s beach, is highly vulnerable to hurricanes but has never had state-of-the-art protection. Now, after a successful campaign to raise $36,000 ...
via Bing News