I recently posted about the effects of global warming on home insurance rates over at the InsureMe Insurance Blog. Now, it seems as if scientists have come up with a way to weaken the hurricanes, which have arguably gotten stronger in light of global warming.

The Insurance Journal reported this week that two New Jersey scientists believe that by cooling a vast area of the ocean before a storm, that they can deprive the hurricane of "fuel" and spare lives and property along US coast lines.

Scientists have long ago proven that the difference between a tropical storm and a full-fledged hurricane lies in only a few degrees; the warmer the ocean water is, the bigger the wallop the storm will pack.

The idea, then, is to cool the ocean using millions of wind- or water-powered pumps, which would be placed about 200 miles offshore in the path of the storm. The pumps would then churn cooler ocean water (which can be found a few hundred feet beneath the water crest) to the surface—cooling the top layer of water by two or three degrees Celsius. According to the scientists' calculations, this could weaken the hurricane by about one category.

Alan F. Blumberg, a professor at Steven's Institute of Technology, is a bit skeptical that such an innovation could tame the so-called beast but agrees it's worth a shot. He agrees that cutting the strength of a hurricane by just one category "translates into a very large reduction in the damages expected from a hurricane."

The team of scientists has yet to determine the environmental impact of transferring billions of gallons of water, along with fish and ocean inhabitants. The team also has yet to secure the $1 to $3 billion needed to test smaller versions of the pumps in a secured environment.

Personally, I'd love to see money spent on this kind of research. It comes second, I think, to repairing the environment, but I'm all for preventative measures and diminishing the impact of hurricanes on our coasts, which could save human lives and lessen damage to property and our economy.

Check out the full article via Insurance Journal here; it's a pretty interesting read. Special thanks to InsureMe president, Tim McTavish, who spotted the article and passed it along.