22 January 2002 - volcano quiz

A volcanic eruption is an ecological catastrophe, and a touch of climate cooling can’t make up for that. Oh yeah, and sometimes it destroys cities, too. What solution do you think will be implemented first?

A. We’ll convert volcanoes to geothermal power plants, sucking away all their heat so they can’t erupt.
B. That won’t work. We’ll send the hot lava through turbines to generate electricity, and use the electricity to run giant air conditioners—with filters to catch the dust and poison gas.
C. Too complicated! We’ll capture the hot volcanic gasses in great balloons. When each balloon is full, we’ll release it to float down the jet stream until it cools and lands at a chemical plant for processing. Wanna ride?
D. If the volcano’s going to trash the territory anyway, why not put the wasteland to a good use, like mall parking?