Almost on cue and in response to the Business Week story this week, the November 17 issue of Science magazine reports that the underlying premise of the "wild fix" to "salt the seas" was a "False Alarm: Atlantic Conveyor Belt Hasn't Slowed Down After All ." It turns out that the cooling of the Gulf Stream -- and consequent deposition of its salt-dense contents further to the southwest rather than between Norway and Greenland -- was just another blip on nature's uneven and imperfectly understood cycle. The concern had been that with the warmer Gulf Stream failing to go as far north, that Europe would suffer a disastrous Ice Age (all caused by global warming).
Many scientists had doubted the theory and it certainly throws cold brine on hopes raised by Business Week that a new market for salt would be to dump shiploads of salt into the North Atlantic. Oh, well...
Now here's a virtually limitless NEW market for salt: Adam Aston in this week's Business Week identifies five "wild fixes for a warming planet." Number 5 is
SALTING THE SEAS
Scientists worry that freshwater from melting Arctic ice and Greenland's glaciers will dilute and disrupt the Gulf Stream as it loops through the North Atlantic. In the past, when this conveyor belt of warm water has stalled, Northern Europe was sent into a mini-Ice Age. To keep the current flowing, Robinson suggests that tanker loads of mineral salt could be dumped into the sea at key points along the Gulf Stream. Since saltier, denser water sinks, staggered deliveries of salt could jolt the cycle and keep the current going. Risks: Altering ocean chemistry on this scale could have catastrophic effects on sea life. Will we have a choice, though? "I'm as dubious about geo-engineering as anyone else," says Robinson. "But the fact is, with climate change we're already doing it."
We've got the salt and the ships. Who'd have thought we could make money by taking salt OUT of the ocean and then putting it back in? It's like WPA, digging holes and filling them back up -- for a good cause!
