Researchers John Latham of the University of Manchester and Stephen Salter of the University of Edinburgh have created a cloud making machine to help counter global warming. The yachts create clouds by spraying sea water into the air in efforts to increase the reflectivity of the clouds covering the ocean. This reflectivity is essential to “bouncing back” solar energy into space, reducing the overall heat of the ocean itself. These turbine powered machines would only be controlled via GPS. They would feature spinning vertical cylinders, not sails. Each boat would cost 500 million dollars to manufacture, however, this may be worth it as it has been estimated that only 3% increase in cloud reflectivity is needed to counter the world’s CO2 emissions.

While hopeful, this new technology is also extremely controversial. Many worry over the unknown consequences of changing the composition of cloud mass by increasing the salt content. Others argue this is not a solution, but just a temporary “cover up”. Nonetheless these yachts are being looked into further as yet another way to counteract the global climate issues.

Although physically, these large fly-swatter objects standing strangely in the midst of a natural setting look to be nothing like a tree, these creations essentially perform the same carbon dioxide transforming task as trees, only better. One of these “trees” can absorb up to ten tons of carbon dioxide a day, a thousand times more than a single live tree. Each tree would cost approximately 24,000 dollars and forests of hundreds of them are being planned, estimated to reduce the United Kingdom’s carbon dioxide emissions by 60%.

Standing 100 feet tall, these trees filter out the carbon dioxide with the use of synthetic filters, eliminating the carbon dioxide to be later disposed in empty gas and oil reservoirs so as to prevent the carbon dioxide from being released back into the atmosphere. These trees soak up the carbon dioxide through the use of both the filters as well as an outer layer of material coating that also helps to absorb the carbon dioxide. Sodium hydroxide is used in this process to convert carbon dioxide to sodium carbonate. These “trees” are currently being tested in the prototype stage by professor and inventor Klaus Lackner of Columbia University.

Unfortunately, the manufacturing of these tree machines would in fact require much energy, however, this would only account for 5% of the carbon dioxide that could be absorbed by a single “tree”. Globally, around 5-10 million trees would be required to absorb all carbon dioxide emissions besides that of power plants. This geo-engineering project, if put to use, could in fact save the planet much needed time and be an effective and innovative way of counteracting the current climate crisis.