Radical Idea: Slow Sea Level Rise By Pumping Water Onto Antarctica?
“Researchers investigate the feasibility of a ‘geoengineering’ solution to rising sea levels: pumping vast quantities of ocean water onto the continent of Antarctica, to thicken the ice sheet.”
Florida Would Disappear If All The Cap Ice Melted, Graphic Courtesy Of Business Insider. Slow Sea Level Rise By Pumping Water Onto Antarctica?
The National Academy Of Science of the United States released research in January with a summary abstract that concludes “a significant global sea-level (GSL) acceleration began in the 19th century and yielded a 20th century rise that is extremely likely (probability P≥0.95P≥0.95) faster than during any of the previous 27 centuries.”
The Christian Science Monitor published an interesting article on a potentially quite innovative and likely controversial approach to slow or stop the predicted continued sea level rise over the coming decades.
“A new study investigates one radical solution: ‘geoengineering,’ or reshaping the planet in a substantial way. In this case, by enlarging Antarctica’s continental glacier via pumping ocean water onto the ice surface. If it works, and the ice sheet grows thicker, it could sequester huge volumes of water and slow or halt the global trend toward rising sea levels.
The new study, published Wednesday in Earth System Dynamics, used computer simulations to assess the costs and benefits of undertaking the gargantuan task of thickening Antarctica.
‘We took quite some time to consider whether to even carry out this research because [Antarctica is] practically the only place humans haven’t interfered with yet,’ says climatologist and co-author Anders Levermann, in a telephone interview with the Monitor.”
For more information and the complete article, please see the Christian Science Monitor.
Antartica Feature Image Via Creative Commons, AnBucko1.
