In the July 15, 2009, edition of USA Today, reporter Dan Vergano reported that five patent requests were recently requested by Gates and climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The content of these patents? According to the article, they describe a system for using turbine-equipped barges to pump cold water deep in the ocean up to the surface to cool the water that is in the path of storms. The effect could significantly slow the speed and destructive power of a storm. For how long is uncertain.

While this is interesting in its application and process, certainly there are better options out there. The habitat destruction alone — the act of violently pumping deep-sea living creatures to a surface at which they may or may not be suited to survive — would seem to be the most obvious negative effect of this kind of approach. This does not even factor in the huge energy resources required to execute such a massive objective. Let's not forget that predicting the path of a hurricane isn't an exact science just yet, either.

Regardless of the viability, though, isn't this attempting to fix the wrong problem? Results from a study conducted by the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) after Hurricane Charley in 2004 show that “the enforcement of modern engineering, design-based building codes made a positive impact on the performance of residential homes. The frequency of claims was reduced by 60 percent and the average claim was 42 percent less severe when a loss did occur, for homes built after the adoption of the modern codes.”

The study went on to report that “based on the analysis of additional living expense records, …th[e] new building code requirements allowed homeowners to return to their homes more quickly and likely reduced the disruption of their day to day lives.”

Now that's an idea that doesn't sound all wet.