skip to main |
skip to sidebar
THE END OF GLOBAL WARMING/COOLING?
We are two hundred years into a new era - The Anthropocene - meaning a human created era of Earth's history when our activities are leading to changes in our Planet's evolutionary pathway. I believe we are capable of the ultimate 'Anthropogenic' act - controlling the level of the sea. By stabilising, or better still reducing current sea levels, we could provide the key to removing the threat of 'global warming', and conveniently, find the solution to most of the World's pressing problems.
About Me
- Gordon Smith
- Christchurch, Dorset, United Kingdom
- There is a theory that overcoming the challenges presented by the last two ice ages helped our brains to grow so large that we are guaranteed dominion over the whole of the Earth. As one of these larger-brained humanoids who has lived through almost sixty five years of this new Anthropocenic era I plan to devote the rest of my life to finding ways of preserving this beautiful planet.
Sea Level Management
Sea levels have risen and are predicted to rise by a metre or more by the end of the century because of global warming.
The world's deserts are growing ever larger as temperatures rise and rainfall decreases and many more people are affected by the resulting sand and dust storms and the loss of pasture and agricultural land leading to greater levels of economic migration.
Lakes and inland seas are increasingly depleted by higher rates of evaporation and river basins are gradually drying due to falls in annual precipitation and spring melt.
Water tables are falling and underground aquifers are depleted by the pressure from rising populations.
To counter this the world is concentrating resources on reducing green house gas emissions in order to limit increases in temperatures and eventually the construction of sea defences to hold back rising sea levels.
The Solution
The next ten to twenty years will provide a crucial window of opportunity for the World to restore the Planet to a state of equilibrium.
Failure to act now could see another boost to our brain size, as we try to survive the destruction of our way of life, due to the hardship caused by runaway temperatures and steeply rising sea levels.
We must continue to reduce C02 emissions, but switch other resources, including one hundred percent of those ear-marked for sea defences, to fund the cost of projects that are designed to eventually halt and then begin reducing emissions and bring about a reduction in sea levels - by:-
Topping up or re-filling lakes, inland seas, former wetlands, shrinking water tables and threatened aquifers.
Diverting all or part of rivers for the above to ensure that no river enters the sea until everyone in that country or continent has sufficient water resources.
Damming of rivers - especially head waters for release in the summer months.
All seasonal rivers to have sufficient sand dams to provide safe water supplies throughout the dry season
An end to all deforestation and the restitution of former key forests. The planting of vast new forests and areas of crops to cool the World's hot-spots.
Rising Sea Levels
It is calculated that sea levels have risen some 15cm to 20cm (6 to 8ins) during the last one hundred and twenty years and they are projected to rise by a metre or more by the turn of the century.
In 2007 I began to look at ways of removing this 120 yr rise at the earliest opportunity, for I reasoned that to do so would provide the World with some breathing space before seas rose once more.
Any increase from current levels could see the destruction of the rice growing areas in twenty of the World's largest river deltas (the latest annual high tide of salt water in the Mekong Delta travelled 140 miles inland rather than the usual 80 miles).
If we use the higher figure of 20cm (8ins) this equates to 75,000 cubic kilometres or approximately one thirteenth of the volume of water in the Mediterranean Sea.
My quest to find places to take this 75,000 cubic kilometres of sea water led me on a fascinating journey around the World.
And the slow realisation that the early completion of the projects I highlight below and the speedy implementation of many other solutions around the world would not only provide:-
Lower sea levels and an end to global warming
But every prospect of achieving the following:-
The provision of reliable water resources worldwide
Leading to an end to conflict over water resources
An abundant supply of food
The end of economic migration
A substantial boost to world trade
Improved health and education facilities for all
A much lower projection for world population growth
Project one - Dead Sea Revival
While walking my dog along the coastal path here in Dorset, England and looking at the expanse of sea between the Isle of Wight and the beginnings of the Jurassic Coast and wondering how to reduce sea levels, I had a 'eureka' moment!
Of course! Construct a canal from the Mediterranean Sea to re-fill the Dead Sea.
This would see my quest to remove 20cm of sea water off to a good start, but low and behold when I Google the idea I find that it was first mooted over a hundred years ago and that there are fully costed plans for two canals from the Med and another re-linking the Dead Sea to the Red Sea.
If these three projects had been completed ten or more years ago they would have done more to bring peace between Arab and Jew than any peace talks and the recent conflicts would have probably been avoided.
I believe all three projects should go ahead immediately.
The canal in the North from the Mediterranean could empty freshly desalinated water into the Sea of Galilee from which it would increase the flow of the Jordan and possibly provide help for the Syrians who are having to abandon settlements for lack of water resources.
The Southern Med Canal could travel through or close by the Gaza Strip to provide desalinated water to increase Palestinian agricultural production to match or beat that of Israel.
The construction of a Suez type canal from the Red Sea
The Dead Sea is 420 metres below sea level and falling by
another metre per year because of evaporation and increasing extraction from the River Jordan.