Dam Geoengineering

[Greg Rau]

https://www.science.org/content/article/could-giant-dam-save-atlantic-currents-keep-europe-warm?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ScienceAdviser&utm_content=distillation&et_rid=495903060&et_cid=5726723

"Now, a pair of researchers is proposing a radical new geoengineering scheme—one that would unfold not in the skies, but in the seas. The goal wouldn’t be to cool the planet, but to avert a paradoxical—and so far hypothetical—consequence of warming. To address persistent fears that the conveyor belt of currents in the Atlantic Ocean responsible for Western Europe’s mild climate could suddenly collapse as the climate warms, the researchers say society should explore the idea of building a dam across the Bering Strait, the 80-kilometer-wide gap between Siberia and Alaska."

[Renaud de RICHTER]

The article mentioned in Science is the following: 
A Constructed Closure of the Bering Strait can Prevent an AMOC Tipping

Jelle Soons, Henk A. Dijkstra

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.19826 
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a major tipping element in the present-day climate, and could potentially collapse under sufficient freshwater or CO2-forcing. While the effect of the Bering Strait on AMOC stability has been well studied, it is unknown whether a constructed closure of this Strait can prevent an AMOC collapse under climate change. Here, we show in an Earth system Model of Intermediate Complexity that an artificial closure of the Strait can extend the safe carbon budget of the AMOC, provided that the AMOC is strong enough at the closure time. Specifically, for this model, an equilibrium AMOC with a reduction below (6.1+/-0.5)% from pre-industrial has an additional budget up to 500PgC given a sufficiently early closure, while for a weaker AMOC a closure reduces this budget. This indicates that constructing this closure can be a feasible climate intervention strategy to prevent an AMOC collapse.

This not-yet peer-reviewed article mentions the following book chapter, that I attach here as it might be relevant to the GEO field.

40. R. B. Cathcart, A. A. Bolonkin, R. D. Rugescu, The Bering Strait Seawater Deflector (BSSD): Arctic Tundra Preservation Using an Immersed, Scalable and Removable Fiberglass Curtain, in Macro-engineering Seawater in Unique Environments: Arid Lowlands and Water Bodies Rehabilitation (Springer), pp. 741–777 (2011). 

Le lun. 8 sept. 2025 à 20:06, Greg Rau <gh...@sbcglobal.net> a écrit :

https://www.science.org/content/article/could-giant-dam-save-atlantic-currents-keep-europe-warm?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ScienceAdviser&utm_content=distillation&et_rid=495903060&et_cid=5726723

"Now, a pair of researchers is proposing a radical new geoengineering scheme—one that would unfold not in the skies, but in the seas. The goal wouldn’t be to cool the planet, but to avert a paradoxical—and so far hypothetical—consequence of warming. To address persistent fears that the conveyor belt of currents in the Atlantic Ocean responsible for Western Europe’s mild climate could suddenly collapse as the climate warms, the researchers say society should explore the idea of building a dam across the Bering Strait, the 80-kilometer-wide gap between Siberia and Alaska."

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