Building a giant dam between Russia and Alaska might save a key Atlantic current that is crucial to regulating the climate in northern Europe. However, that massive undertaking presents other risks, researchers explain in a new study.
By stretching across the Bering Strait and disconnecting the Pacific Ocean from the Arctic Ocean, this huge geoengineering scheme could buy more time for the threatened conveyor belt of currents known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), according to the study. However, the study authors and other researchers caution that the effect is variable, the results are preliminary, and further modeling studies are needed to see if such a bold course of action might be merited.
