They were weather buoys, which showed a thirteen degree drop in the ocean's temperature, indicating the severity of the disaster.

According to David Axe, a tech writer with Wired.co.uk, the buoys might symbolize the fight against climate change. He says that public attention being focused on carbon emissions from vehicles and power plants is futile--because global warming is the bigger threat.

Though the effects of cars and factories can certainly be measured, they are miniscule in comparison.

In fact, Axe says, there is a "carbon warehouse" deep in the ocean, within a layer of water that normally doesn't reach the surface.

"It was a sudden shift in this global pattern that inspired the plot of the 2004 disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow, in which the resulting overnight transformation of the world's weather led to a cascade of lethal storms," Axe says.

"While hugely exaggerated, the movie got the basic science right," says Dr Augustus Vogel, an American researcher.
Source(s):
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-05/11/robot-buoys-will-sound-clima...


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