A Geo-Engineering Proposal to Save the Arctic
by David Sassoon - Sep 23rd, 2008
in
A fellow named Rolf Schuttenhelm has written up a proposal to build a 300 kilometer long dam in the Bering Sea to halt Arctic melting and permafrost thawing. He suggests that a 1.5 billion cubic foot wall of rock dumped into the sea would alter temperature, water salinity and water turbulence and help the Arctic stay frozen.
It's hard to know what to make of this proposal. A quick search on Google reveals a web site that identifies a Rolf Schuttenhelm this way:
Rolf is a Dutch student from the great city of Utrecht, where he spends his time studying physical geography and getting drunk with co-students. And, besides a few other hobbies, he likes to draw cartoons.
Geo-engineering proposals to slow global warming have included: deploying mirrors in space, spraying the stratosphere with sulfur, fertilizing the ocean with urea, and spraying the atmosphere with sea water.
It's unclear how serious Schuttenhelm is. The press release says this:
Author Rolf Schuttenhelm doesn't advocate the plan himself. 'I agree many uncertainties exist."
Indeed. What happens when you obstruct the flow of an entire ocean? Maybe Schuttenhelm is most interested in drawing attention to the melting Arctic, and provoking people to think about how to stop it.
The press release that came into our in-box originated from an odd web site called Clever Climate.
Perhaps too clever.
Wonder what the proposal would look like rendered as a cartoon.
If you'd like to see Schuttenhelm's cartoons, go here, but they are in Dutch.
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