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Fri 3 Sep, 2010 07:16 pm
Revisiting a wild far flung scientific daydream project of Olympic proportions, I still wonder if we as a species can manipulate our globe in such a massive scale where we build our own man made oceans in the middle of the great deserts of the world (Mojave, Sahara, the Gobi, etc...) what would be the outcome of these planet altering enterprises.
Merry Andrew wrote:
Quote:In the late 1960s, a think tank, the Hudson Institute, aired a proposal to create an ocean the size of Germany smack in the middle of the fat, upper half of South America.
. . . uh. . . for what purpose?
Now an ocean in the middle of South America doesn't make sense. We need this land to rebuild the rain forests and bring up the oxygen production and global scale carbon dioxide scrubbing of this region at it's peak.
Out of delusion and/or scientific ignorance, I feel compelled to bring this up again in some kind of fanciful and hyperunrealistic project against the rising waters that come with global warming.
So what are the possibilities that these artificial oceans can:
1. Forestall any future wars for fresh water resources and rights;
2. Create a new global food source to stave off massive food shortages ~ massive fish farms and perhaps genetically manipulated seaweed farms;
3. Save the great coastal regions of North American and Europe from being flooded by the seemingly great floods caused by global warming;
4. Absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with the massive amount of vegetation on the bottom of these oceans;
5. Etc...?
What would these massive new man made oceans do in terms of changing the outcome of global warming? Could they excel the climate change or prevent it ~ in terms of literally changing/effecting the global air currents which pass over these geological anomalies?
The original thread that I have been contemplating on even before I wrote the thread:
http://able2know.org/topic/139600-1#post-3856826
@tsarstepan,
My first impression is that a new ocean might cause an increase in atmospheric water vapor. Isn't that another one of those greenhouse gases?
@roger,
I was thinking that too but couldn't remember what aspect the extra water vapor would add to the global formula.
@tsarstepan,
Know what scared me? A group (California, no less) came up with a neat method of cooling oceans as a means of preventing hurricanes. I wonder if they considered the loss of rainfall involved in stopping hurricanes. I wonder if they though about the possibility of altering ocean currents.
I read Super Freakonomics last month. Interesting.
@tsarstepan,
I did look at the atlas and there are a few spots in the world that are below sea level and in desert areas or there are deserts nearby. They could dig a channel to the ocean or sea as they are not that far maybe a few hundred miles.
1) Tarim Basin in Northwest China - very, very far from the sea; try getting from the Himalayas.
2) Dead Sea area in Jordan/Israel
3) Southern Australia
4) Near Libya/Egypt coast by the Sahara Desert
@tsarstepan,
Where exactly do you think a man-made ocean can be made?
Water is a finite resource. If stored in one place it becomes unavailable at another place. Ie covering a desert in (say) africa with water wouold deprive (say) sth America of water.
every action had an equal and opposite reaction.
Assuming we could phisically do it...
Where will the uncomprehedible volume of water come from?
@roger,
This global manipulation could change the outcome of one potential world wide catastrophe and place everyone in the path of another completely different global catastrophe.
These projects need the greatest scrutiny and study before even they can get seriously into the preproduction stages of their development.
@dadpad,
With the threat of rising sea levels maybe putting water in below sea level lands could alleviate the danger.
@tsarstepan,
I'm going to go out and point a mirror at the sun. At least if it gets too cold, I can take it back inside.
@cicerone imposter,
cicerone imposter wrote:
Where exactly do you think a man-made ocean can be made?
Like what Talk72000 said. Make massive underground and above ground rivers/channels into the continent and basically redirect the water into these massive man made basins until you get ... okay what would ultimately be man made seas rather then oceans.
@dadpad,
dadpad wrote:
Water is a finite resource. If stored in one place it becomes unavailable at another place. Ie covering a desert in (say) africa with water wouold deprive (say) sth America of water.
every action had an equal and opposite reaction.
Assuming we could phisically do it...
Where will the uncomprehedible volume of water come from?
I'm making the assumption that with global warming that the water would come from the polar ice fields, Antarctica, etc....
It's speculation powered by a most wildly undereducated guess.
@talk72000,
Quote: Southern Australia
Thats my house your talking about.
To the best of my knowledge there is only one place in Australia that is below sea level. Lake eyre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_on_land_with_elevations_below_sea_level
@talk72000,
That'd be quite fun! Living in a boathouse I mean.
@tsarstepan,
Did you see the Movie "Houseboat" with Cary Grant and Sophia Loren?
These would be the best places to flood in my opinion
North America
* Death Valley
o Badwater, Death Valley, USA [−86 m (−282.2 ft)]
o Furnace Creek Airport (L06), Death Valley, USA [−64 m (−210.0 ft)]
* Salton Sink, USA [−66 m (−216.5 ft)]
o Bombay Beach, California, USA [−69 m (−226.4 ft)]
o Brawley, California, USA [−37 m (−121.4 ft)]
o Calipatria, California, USA [−56 m (−183.7 ft)]
o Coachella, California, USA [−22 m (−72.2 ft)]
o Desert Shores, California, USA [−61 m (−200.1 ft)]
o El Centro, California, USA [−12 m (−39.4 ft)]
o Heber, California, USA [−5 m (−16.4 ft)]
o Holtville, California, USA [−3 m (−9.8 ft)]
o Imperial, California, USA [−18 m (−59.1 ft)]
o Indio, California, USA [−6 m (−19.7 ft)]
o Niland, California, USA [−43 m (−141.1 ft)]
o Salton City, California, USA [−38 m (−124.7 ft)]
o Salton Sea Beach, California, USA [−67 m (−219.8 ft)]
o Seeley, California, USA [−13 m (−42.7 ft)]
o Thermal, California, USA [−37 m (−121.4 ft)]
o Westmorland, California, USA [−48 m (−157.5 ft)]
* New Orleans, USA [−2 m (−6.6 ft)]
Yeah good, no one is gonna miss death valley or the rest of california and New Orleans
Quote:How effective would man-made oceans be on preventing the global catastrophe of climate change?
There's no such thing as preventing an imaginary catastrophe...
@dadpad,
Thanks, I forget Death Valley.
@talk72000,
If I did, I may have forgotten about it. The name sounds vaguely familiar but that's it. I know it involves a family on a small houseboat.
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