A few months ago I posted a few thoughts on several inventive last ditch efforts scientific solutions to the many coalescing problems currently screwing the planet. Some bordered on the humorously bizarre, while others had more than just a slight whiff of feasibility. Tonight I’m particularly digging this one, which sees mankind building 2000 robotic yachts to inject a super fine spray of sea salt from the oceans into maritime stratocumulus clouds. Why? To up their droplet count and make them whiter, of course.

“This one-off increase in reflectance,” argues Dr Alan Gadian, a senior research lecturer in the School of Earth and the Environment at the University of Leeds, “and the resulting cooling – could buy us precious time; maybe as much as 25 years.”

Yeah, but it could just boggle future brains following the slow self-destruction of civilization, as nothing would confuse postdeluvian generations more than 2000 idle yachts floating aimlessly around the global ocean. Between that and a gill-necked Kevin Costner, what would the fish people make of us?

So give us the boats, Doc. Please. It’s either that or we immediately stop driving, flying, and allowing cows to fart unchallenged, which doesn’t seem all that likely, really.