Written on 7 August 2012:
Paying attention to the simultaneity of severe flooding in some regions of the world, along with severe drought in others, has got me thinking. Now On the Record:
A technology can and will eventually be developed that will have the effect of what I will call “aerial vacuuming,” or gathering, through a process of intentional vortexial spin or counterspin, excess water from a storm that threatens to flood one region, and diverting that water to one that suffers from drought thousands of miles away.
This crazy idea presumes the possibility of storing water suborbitally very far above ground in “energetic spin zones,” rather than in manufactured cisterns or metal pipelines, which are often stored either underground, or slightly above ground. Controlling the direction and force of the spin permits holding or directing water (whether gathered on the fly in a storm, or stored from a prior weather occurrence) to any particular region of the planet as need arises.
Such a spin will undoubtedly impact the force and direction of hurricanes and tropical storms as they form, mitigating the increasing occurrence of simultaneous massive floods and massive droughts all over the world. The spin will also rely on the intensity of storms to create and maintain such storage facilities, just as some forms of the martial arts teach the student to use the direction and force of the opponent to prevail in a confrontation. So the intention is not to eliminate hurricanes, which are an important source of water for the planet, but to use them to better purpose, with lesser loss of life and land and property. Sound crazy? Perhaps, but worth a look.
Given such a possibility, there will be unanticipated consequences for orbital spin that must be paid close attention to, and there will be significant impact on flight patterns, which must be continually adjusted to avoid these probably invisible or near invisible spin zones. In addition, the consequences of a “broken” spin could be disastrous, perhaps through solar flare activity or other routine planetary cyclic events. There will also be implications for sound, as the movement and rotation of the spin zone could cause sonic boom activity below.
There may also be techniques for deconstruction and re-constituting the elements of this “vacuumed” water, but such a process could prove to be quite dangerous and literally throw the planet off its axis through high altitude explosions. It would be better to store the water as water, which is non-toxic, rather than as gas, some of which could be deadly.
Storage continues to be the most significant challenge for energy production in many domains. The spin concept reduces the dependence on container materials development, and the vacuuming process itself is an enormous energy producer, probably controlled remotely via computer signal. It would combine the most powerful aspects of wind and water energy with near zero unwanted emissions. After all, we just landed on Mars; we can do this!
I am a futurist and social scientist, not a natural scientist, so there is nothing for me to “prove” here. I cannot even verify whether such an idea is possible given the currently accepted laws of physics. It just seems to be an idea whose time has come; one that is worth pursuing. It will most likely take many years to know whether this current musing has value, but at least I am On the Record for now.