can this stop global warming?

Question

yes this is a crazy idea and im betting 9 out of 10 people will try and make jokes about it, but anyways here it is. ice melting into the ocean is a problem, as it would flood a lot of land in the ocean with its 250 foot higher ocean increase.

in popular mechanics theres something in development to launch all sorts of things into space for astronauts and space construction for things like satelites. i forget exactly how it works entirely, but it looks like a giant spiral, and has something to do with magnets. anyways, the longer they make it the faster they can make the objects travel so they can shoot them into space. the blueprints for the one was expected to be made within the next 5 or 10 years and was powerful enough to shoot things into space, with speeds of 7 miles per second.

so my idea is this, someway to transport water to the tube constantly to be shot into space. i doubt water would make it as far so maybe a cheap way to contain it for the launch. just a crazy idea....

Answer 1

When people talk about global warming, the primary substance they talk about is carbon dioxide. However, there is a gas in the atmosphere that is an even greater contributor to the greenhouse effect. This gas is...drumroll please...WATER VAPOR. So shooting water into the air would, if anything, INCREASE global warming. Sorry, bad idea.

Answer 2

Interesting notion. The problem is the energy required to launch something into space; whether that energy is delivered by an electromagnetic device or by a rocket engine doesn't matter much -- the energy still has to come from somewhere. And we're talking a LOT of energy. A bowling ball weighs about as much as two gallons of water. Figure out how much energy would be required to lift an 8 kilogram bowling ball to an altitude of 200 kilometers.

Answer 3

It's not a good idea. The amount of energy to fling a pound of water into space is around 18,000,000 Joules, compared about 150,000 Joules to freeze it back into ice. Even if your freezer is very, very inefficient, you'd still be better off doing it that way.

Here's another way to look at it...it would be easier to build a 250-foot tall dam all the way around Greenland and just let it all melt than it would be to fling the top 250-feet of ice in Greenland's ice cap into space.

Answer 4

If you shoot water in space just to cool it down and bring it back to earth, then it could change something over time, but this is much easier to cool down the water using sonic waves (which also cost much less energy to get a result).
Anyways, our water is warming, and its not the CO2 that is responsible for this, I am getting more and more sure about this!! So cooling water should get the job done, but I guess it will not stop the volcanic eruptions that are coming...

Answer 5

Frankly, I think it would be easier to just pump it inland and let it freeze if you were really worried about it. There is very little chance of a 20 foot rise in sea level in the next few centuries let alone 200 foot. The Artic and Antartic are still very cold places in spite of what some people think.

Answer 6

Yes, it is a crazy idea. Firing that much mass into space would take far more energy than just freezing the water where it is, and that would take far more energy than moving everybody away from the rising water levels.

Answer 7

I'm not sure I understand your idea. You are just going to shoot the water off of earth until, what, there's no water left? Water is fundamental to life.

Answer 8

Not a bad idea, Just the sheer magnitude of that project would be mind blowing!!!1

Answer 9

I believe your penultimate paragraph about sums it up.