Neil DeGrasse Tyson Says We Should Just Turn Hurricanes Into Electricity
The United States has been taking a pounding weather-wise lately. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria let loose a unspeakable amount of damage in the form of high winds, flooding, and damage to essential infrastructure that will frankly take decades to repair.
These super-storms have been watched, analyzed, and deconstructed more than any storms in history. As a result, a mountain of data on cyclonic storms now exists - and scientists have been going to town on it. Better seawalls, storm breaks, and evacuation planning are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the possibilities this information unlocks. One of, if not the, most well known scientists on this planet thinks that we may actually be able to harness this catastrophic power.
In an interview with Today, noted Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson wondered why we don't harness the tremendous wind and tidal energies instead of running from them. Obviously, he wasn't suggesting people shouldn't have evacuated from the recent storms that have battered that US Coast - but rather researching ways to benefit from the incredible power that mother nature unleashed instead of fearing it.
Incredibly robust turbines could harness the 100+ mph winds and tidal harvesters could convert the power of the storm surge and produce enormous amounts of electricity. The idea is that we should advance technology in the near future to harness the changing climate instead of running from it. This 2014 article from Nature even suggests that a hardened offshore wind farm could help tame destructive hurricane-force winds.
Until such hardened, hurricane proof structures can be constructed - the scientist suggests that you should still run if you are in a killer storms path.