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Could Building a Dam Across the Bering Strait Save the Planet From Some Effects of Climate Change?
Key takeaways
- The current system plays an important role in regulating the Earth’s climate, but it’s under threat due to the world’s warming.
- It transports warm, salty surface water from the tropics to the North Atlantic, where the water then cools, becomes denser and sinks.
- Recent studies, however, have shown that the AMOC is weakening.
Ocean Color / NASA Damming the Bering Strait, a narrow waterway between Russia and Alaska, could prevent the collapse of a crucial network of ocean currents, according to a bold geoengineering proposal from two Dutch scientists.
The work, published in the journal Science Advances on April 24, suggests that closing a roughly 50-mile-wide passageway between the Pacific and Arctic oceans could extend the lifespan of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. The current system plays an important role in regulating the Earth’s climate, but it’s under threat due to the world’s warming.
The AMOC acts like a water conveyor belt. It transports warm, salty surface water from the tropics to the North Atlantic, where the water then cools, becomes denser and sinks. It’s a major reason why Europe has a relatively mild climate, despite its high latitude. That cold water then moves back south, carrying along nutrients essential for marine life.