There aren’t too many details on this, but an abstract called “Can We Eliminate the Major Tornado Threats in Tornado Alley?” appearing in the Bulletin of the American Physical Society is definitely, uh, intriguing. How are we to eliminate tornadoes? Through gigantic walls strategically placed across the country.
Here’s the abstract in full:
The abstract was posted by Temple University physics chair Rongjia Tao, ahead of a talk to be presented next week on “the physics of climate.” It’s not clear if this is being proposed as an actual _solution _to tornadoes, or if it’s more of a mathematical exercise. For now I’ll assume the latter and hope for the former.
Update: USA Today _got in touch with Tao, who says it’s a real proposal for 1,000-foot-high by 150-foot-wide walls that would be built at an approximate cost of $60 billion per 100 miles. People are skeptical.