I just saw a couple scary hours of History Channel.
The first hour described millions of years of climate change, then how
mankind has accelerated global warming since the industrial
revolution. It's getting worse at a faster pace as China and India
come on line, and soon the methane released from permafrost decay will
further speed things up. Disaster every damn place you look.
The second hour covered some of the same territory, but focused on
flooding caused by rising sea levels, warming seas causing more
damaging hurricanes than ever, whereby Washington, DC, New York,
Boston and Baltimore are inundated by the sea. I don't know why
Galveston was ignored, but for some reason Havre De Grace, MD was
prominently mentioned.
This episode was called "Mega-Disasters." And our beautiful planet of
waterways was depicted as ending up almost FUBAR.
Anyway, this was all pretty worrying, and I was thinking something
should be done before panic sets in and screws up recreational boating
before I even get a boat.
Boaters are a resourceful lot, and when put to the test usually come
through with the answer.
Having read this group for about a year now, I've got a pretty good
idea of some of the group members' capabilities.
Many engineers, mechanics, writers and businessmen participate here,
and of course we have many vets.
Let's just all pitch in and see what we can come up with.
I was Navy, but I do know what Gung Ho means, even if I would never
say that.
Right. I'll start off.
Some years ago - cold war, maybe early '70's - I read a Popular
Mechanics article about how we could destroy Ruskie naval
capabilities. The plan was simple. Some number of C-130's are filled
with pulverized coal dust. The dust is dropped over the arctic and
antarctic ice sheets. As the blackened ice ABSORBS the sun's energy,
it melts. Sea levels rise, and the Ruskie naval ports become useless.
Okay, that's one side of the issue - the wrong side for now, since the
ice is already melting, and the Ruskies aren't a threat..
Where I need your help is to come up with something to drop from the
C-130's that will REFLECT the sun's energy. This will halt the
warming, and get the ice freezing up again.
I thought of a few things that might work, like Johnson & Johnson baby
powder, Christmas tree foil, etc., and looked in my tackle box - which
has a lot of reflective lures - for ideas on materials, but really
couldn't come up with anything with which I was confident.
I admit I'm not an engineer, but I can caulk.
Coal dust is cheap and works. In its own dark way it's "green" too,
being naturally occurring. Try to find its counterpart.
Now, listen up.
You guys come up with the reflective material, get all the logistics
worked out with SAC, and launch operation "Freeze."
You can rename the mission if you want. Don't worry about my
feelings. Knock it around with the team.
In the meantime, I'm going to be on eBay looking for somebody selling
old Popular Mechanics magazines to find that article about the coal
dust mission, because I can't remember the details.
So that means I'm commanding operation "Melt."
Anybody got a problem with that? Good.
I figure I'll find the article in time to stop the Ice Age you've
started with operation "Freeze" before the glaciers reach Chicago.
Then we join forces and start tweaking the missions.
Let's just hope I don't get outbid by some lowlife sniper on eBay.
I hate it when that happens, and this is a bad time for that.
I don't need to say anything else. You know what this means.
To America. To the World. To Boating.
Men, let's do it!

--Vic