August 29, 2040 - Analysts believe that the effort in taming the
hurricane Pedro is the main reason for it to still be considered
a category four hurricane, before it reached the coast of
southern Florida today. This is the first time ever a major
hurricane has been affected in a measurable way by humans.
The hurricane fighting fleet of airplanes was alerted five days
ago and has since then been spraying the ocean surface around
Pedro's eye with a mix based on biodegradable oil to slow down
the evaporating that feeds the hurricane. Even though progress
have been made calculating the development of a hurricane, it is
still difficult to determine the exact effect of the spraying,
but analysts believe it is reason that the wind speed has not
increased.
It is hard to tell exactly what kind of damages a category five
hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale could do to the southern
part of Florida. Estimations show that the difference between a
category four and five hurricane could equal 10% of the damages,
which if Pedro was in a bad mood, could be about US$ 17 billion.
If these estimations are correct, the much debated investment in
the hurricane fighting fleet was well worth it.
The taming of Pedro gives good hope for the future since the
number of hurricanes has increased during the last 30 years,
mainly because of the global warming. Hurricanes need a water
temperature of at least 27 degrees Celsius which has become more
common during this period.
About the author:
Pontus Edenberg is the editor of News of Future, a publication
with news
about future environment, society, health, technology etc.
People of the world are invited to comment on the news and take
part in shaping their future.
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