Prof Stephen Salter, the Edinburgh engineer who was among the first to harness wave power for electricity, has proposed a new way of dealing with global warming. Paul Lamarra reports (Sunday Times) that the technique

..would involve using a fleet of small boats to produce the fine spray. As the water evaporated, tiny particles of salt would be carried into low-lying stratocumulus clouds by rising air currents. The salt would whiten the clouds, making them more reflective, and also create more water droplets, further reducing the amount of sun rays penetrating the atmosphere.

Prof Salterss claim is that a 4.5 percent increase in the reflectivity of one third of the earth’s clouds will be sufficient to negate all the forecast effects of global climate change.

Initially 500 unmanned radio-controlled boats, costing £1m each, would be deployed off the west coast of Africa and west of Peru, where the lumpy stratocumulus clouds are most prevalent. The 70ft-tall vessels, placed 25 miles apart, would be tracked by satellite. The forward movement of the boats, driven by wind-powered rotors, would turn underwater turbines that would create a field of static electricity. Water sucked into the rotors would hit the electrostatic field, creating the fine mist of seawater.

The technique sounds exotic, but Prof Salter believes it is both practical and cost-effective. The government is aware of his ideas and considering them, said an Environment Dept spokesman. The idea seems worth testing. The cost is tiny, compared to compliance with Kyoto and some other alternatives. Strangely, the coverage did not feature the ritual denunciations from environmentalist groups who oppose any alternatives to Kyoto, and are particularly critical of technological solutions which do not require us to live more simply. No doubt that will come later.