Morning Journal, Thursday,
July 17, 2014
For billions of years the Moon has been drifting away in altitude from Earth by about a half an inch per year. In just 1.26 million years the moon will be 10 miles further away! So what if we gave nature of push of just a few several billion years? We humans have proven our ability and propensity to control nature let's not look away from the Earths' moon to control nature again.
When sea levels rise to destructive levels at our shores what will we do? We'll move inland. We'll build high to stay near the shore and let the waves wash under our elevated parking garages. We'll have towering residential buildings several stories underwater all along our coasts. Venetian small businesses will sprout up in our coastal cities as the unemployed build gondolas to push us through the streets as the streets will look more like Venice every day.
When Earthlings have had enough and climb out of "future denial" and see the futility of continuing to fight the ocean all over the world to save millions and millions of people, spending trillions of dollars shoring up our homes and businesses, we might then look to this seeming incredible solution: we could send the moon further away, enough to lower world wide sea levels to a far more tolerable level.
What are Tides (from HiWaay.net) "The Moon and Tides":
"Tides are created because the Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it, and the moon is able to pull at it. Each day, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides." And; "Tides are the periodic rise and falling of large bodies of water. Winds and currents move the surface water causing waves. The gravitational attraction of the moon causes the oceans to bulge out in the direction of the moon. Another bulge occurs on the opposite side, since the Earth is also being pulled toward the moon (and away from the water on the far side). Ocean levels fluctuate daily as the sun, moon and earth interact. As the moon travels around the earth and as they, together, travel around the sun, the combined gravitational forces cause the world's oceans to rise and fall. Since the earth is rotating while this is happening, two tides occur each day." And; "Spring Tides: When the moon is full or new, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun are combined. At these times, the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. This is known as a spring high tide. Spring tides are especially strong tides (they do not have anything to do with the season Spring). They occur when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a line. The gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun both contribute to the tides. Spring tides occur during the full moon and the new moon."
Our oceans swell by several feet all over the world and at differing heights of danger, especially during ocean born storms. The frequency and severity of these storms can be expected to increase in coming years where many coastal massive populations are living.
Gravity between the Earth and moon can be reduced when the moon is pushed, say 100,000 miles further from us. This reduction in gravity due to the increased distance can lower the world's oceans by one to several feet, buying humanity centuries to reverse our atmospheric issue.
Simplistic? Yes kind of, but consider the simplistic ideas that have created the most wonderful technology and solutions to our problems in our past, and consider this may be one of those types of ideas. A common statement from nearly everyone at one time or another is "It's just amazing to me that our generation had not thought of that simple solution way back then!"
Some detriments to this project may be: We would be reducing tidal influence every where, causing a loss and a changing of shore ecology including wildlife whose lives are dependent upon the tides. We would be influencing tectonic pressures and placements all over the world. We may experience several volcanoes at once as pressure upon lava lakes and lava streams are released by the of pressure withdrawn by distancing the moon from Earth. But solutions which prevent those things from happening, I am confident, we can create before sending our satellite further out of orbit.
We may lose the moon if we miscalculate its new distance, and it may return to us in the form of a collision with Earth, which would be a not-so-amusing cosmic irony since the moon was created by the collision of a planetary body into the molten earth more than three billion years ago.
Ship and boats in harbors around the world may be beached on the rock and on the seabed if not prepared for the change when the moon is sent further away. Surfing will be so many feet of water less challenging and fun. Winds born of ocean waves of high oceans will be reduced, and we will see a reduction in sea-born winds and hurricanes and typhoons. And an idea worth exploring now before great suffering occurs that we could have stopped.
Hey let's give it a try because it may be worth the risk in sheer numbers of lives and untold amounts of energy and money.
Copyright Reserved: James G. Mason, July, 2014. JamesGMason.com
The Moon and Tides:
