CONTROL CO₂ —NOT CLIMATE

I found William B. Gail's article [“Climate Control,” May] interesting and at the same time frustrating. It is another example of us technologists overengineering a solution. I was gratified by Gail's acquiescence on the causes of global warming—basically, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” But his nine ways to cool the planet amount to closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. And the costs associated with most of those solutions would be astronomical and never ending.

Attempting to take control of Earth's weather—or even to influence it—is frightening. Suppose we succeeded. Then, as managers of the biosphere, we would decide who gets the rain and which species would be left to die. And don't think for a minute that those decisions wouldn't be made based on political or military goals.

The problem with finding ways to get rid of carbon dioxide is that the solutions make it acceptable to keep producing it. And that has the same logic as continuing to eat fat juicy steaks and burgers because we have Lipitor. No one wants to talk about serious CO2 control, because it would affect our lifestyles and possibly even shift global wealth and power.

And yet on almost every continent there are vast expanses of empty desert that could be adapted for solar power. Meanwhile, Europe and the Americas are covered with energy-inefficient buildings. Our vehicles burn far more fuel than they need to. And, finally, better nuclear-power options, including fusion energy, are not being given the R&D support they deserve.

John J. Christiano

IEEE Member

Franklin, N.J.

The geoengineering vision offered in the article is seductively plausible, because we can now monitor Earth systems, and it is tempting, because humans must respond in some way to climate change. This vision is also completely inappropriate, because the major challenges are political and social, not scientific or technological. Any regime capable of implementing trillion-dollar space shields or stratospheric dust layers could much more easily manage the whole problem with prosaic improvements to such metrics as automotive miles per gallon, lighting lumens per watt, commercial energy carbon intensity, and coastal land-use regulations.

Clinton J. Andrews

IEEE Senior Member

Highland Park, N.J.

A FLAP OVER FLYING

The cover of the May 2007 issue asks, “Would you fly on an aircraft that flapped its wings?” [“Fly Like a Bird”]. I have to respond: been there; done that; won't do it again!

In December 2000 I was flying from Toronto to Chicago on an Air Canada Airbus A-340. As usual, I was in my preferred seat, right behind the wings where, as an aerospace engineer, I could watch and appreciate the control surface movements. When we approached the destination airport and the pilot deployed the flaps, I was shocked to see them oscillate in torsion like a flag waving in the wind. I made a point of being the last person off the aircraft so I could mention this to the flight crew.

Their response was that this was “normal” and nothing to worry about. My comeback was that when I am flying onboard a commercial airplane I want the word “flap” to be a noun and not a verb!

Andy Lanouette

IEEE Member

Appleton, Wis.

HIGH ON HYDROPOWER

My compliments on “Thirst for Power” by G. Pascal Zachary [May]. Finally someone in the IEEE organization has seen the merits of hydropower, especially small hydropower.

I was the senior electrical engineer on over 10 U.S. hydroelectric projects with output of less than 15 megawatts and on 15 to 20 non-U.S. projects with output below 50 MW. Most of the smaller hydro projects were built on existing waterways such as irrigation canals, municipal waterways, rivers, and so on. I have always marveled at the small footprint and short construction schedule for a small hydro project—and the joy it brings to the surrounding community.

One final note: in the United States, there are over 80 000 existing dams utilized for flood control, navigation, municipal water supplies, and the like, but only 3 percent of these dams have hydroelectric power generation associated with them, according to an article in the magazine Hydro Review [September 2006]. At least 20 000 of these dams could be utilized to produce electrical energy.

This means that the United States could easily increase the present renewable hydroelectric power generation (zero emissions) by over 30 000 MW without building any new dams if some type of federal impetus and energy focused on it.

David M. Clemen

IEEE Senior Member

Western Springs, Ill.