Boil the ocean?

In business lliterature, to "Boil The Ocean" means to try to solve too many problems at once, or some other overambitious project, typically resulting in a complete failure…an attempt at something that is way too ambitious.

The phrase was popularized by Will Rogers, during World War I, who was asked what could be done about the problem of German U-boats. "Boil the ocean," he suggested. When pressed for exactly how, he is supposed to have said: "It's your job to work out the details!"

Some of us have given thought to those details, in case German U-Boats become a problem again.

Experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) figure that the world's oceans consist of 275 million cubic miles. The problem is simply one of finding the energy to bring it to a boil. To find out how much energy is needed, we consulted MichioKaku, professor of theoretical physics at City University of New York. He confirmed our worst fears: "It would take a lot of energy," he discovered, "about 4.7 x 1026 joules, give or take. It would probably require more energy than all the fuel on earth."

But perhaps, since "boil the ocean" has become a popular term in business circlese, a particularly powerful consulting firm might be able to do it. By our calculations, one day of really serious business consulting involves about 1 x 107 joules of energy. Assuming no vacations, this means every single person on earth would have to consult for more than 26 million years to actually "boil the ocean."

Anyway, what would happen if they succeeded? Jeffrey Chanton, a professor of oceanography at Florida State University offered us a discouraging opinion. "It would mean the end of the life we know on earth. It is a terrible idea."