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If tidal energy takes off, I'll guarantee you that - if it hasn't already happened - there will be chilling articles about dead fish and other sea populations.


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I wonder what the unintended consequences of taking energy out of such currents would be to ocean wild life.

Wait, isn't most of that "tidal power" that we would be capturing going into grinding rocks into sand along the coast?

> If you're in flat geography at sea level, you could probably access tidal energy to drive generators

There are projects testing this, but ocean water is highly corrosive and maintenance is a nightmare.


And give up tidal energy?

That might disturb the ocean ecosystem.

Well it's in the article:

incredible energy consumption, its impacts on marine life, projected sea-level rise and the cost of the resulting water itself -- with that cost being passed on to customers.


I'm fairly certain stopping the tides would be devastating to the environment since several ecosystems (tidal plains, marshes, riparian zones, etc.) depend upon them.

That's going to end up in our oceans.

Just to reiterate, this is an excellent article, even if it is chilling.

It's funny, you wouldn't think, even 20 years ago, that this sort of stuff could still happen. But humans are still human, and the sea is still the sea.


Sounds promising. I wonder the possible impact on ocean ecology though.

what about marine life trapped in the middle of that? For whales and dolphins it will look like drive fishery and could lead to some serious issues and even death from stress.

Too much of a good thing could be considered harmful:

Destroying the Earth by Using Tidal Energy

Jerry Z. Liu

https://cs.stanford.edu/people/zjl/pdf/tide0.pdf


If the ocean dies, so does mankind.

This sounds like a disaster for the ecosystem in the sea and especially on the sea bed.

I can't help but think, more and more often; how destructive and short sighted human technology has become. I find it fascinating to watch how ingenious we are, but equally or more terrifying. The ocean is our single life sustaining force.

Ha. I'm ready for a red ocean. If anything, the color would be due to all the fish dying.

This is a fun concept with potentially even more interesting consequences. Using the ocean as a giant heatsink would result in a water temperature slightly higher than elsewhere, I wonder if over time it would suffice to attract the attention of non-local aquatic life, or affect the migratory habits of the existing species

Well that was a sad article to read on a Monday morning. If this is what we've just scratched the surface on - I'm nervous to what we don't know in terms of ocean dumping.

The sea can handle it, it's just a matter of how it's introduced back into it.
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