Roland Piquepaille | ZDNet.com
According to UK and U.S. researchers, it should be possible to fight the global warming effects associated with an increase of dioxide levels by using autonomous cloud-seeding ships to spray salt water into the air. This project would require the deployment of a worldwide fleet of 1,500 unmanned ships to cool the Earth even if the level of carbon dioxide doubled. 
These 300-tonne ships ‘would be powered by the wind, but would not use conventional sails. Instead they would be fitted with a number of 20 m-high, 2.5 m-diameter cylinders known as Flettner rotors. The researchers estimate that such ships would cost between £1m and £2m each. This translates to a US$2.65 to 5.3 billion total cost for the ships only. Even if this project has its merits, who will finance it? The scientists don’t answer this question.
If they’re built one day, these cloud-seeding ships will use the concept of the rotor ship developed by German engineer Anton Flettner, which is based “on the Magnus effect where a spinning body in a moving airstream experiences a force perpendicular to the direction of the airstream.” (Credit: Wikipedia) Flettner built two sea-going ships. The first one, shown above, initially named Buckau, then renamed Baden-Baden crossed the Atlantic in 1926. Here is a larger version of this vintage image. (Credit: Wikipedia)
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