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The plan to maintain the ocean current would involve much larger versions of parachute sea anchors<\/p>\n
Ed Dunens (CC BY 2.0)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Shipping tankers, drones and fishing boats could be used to drag giant parachutes through the waters of the Atlantic Ocean as part of a drastic plan to avert catastrophic climate change.<\/p>\n
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) transports warm water from the tropics northwards, helping to keep northern Europe temperate.<\/p>\n
However, a rapidly melting Arctic and warming ocean temperatures are weakening the current, with some scientists fearing it could shut down altogether at some point in the coming century<\/a>. This would plunge oceanic ecosystems into chaos and rapidly cool Europe\u2019s climate by several degrees.<\/p>\n Greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut rapidly to reduce the risk of AMOC collapse and other catastrophic climate \u201ctipping points\u201d, experts stress. But some are considering other, more radical approaches to keep the current going.<\/p>\n Stuart Haszeldine<\/a> at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and David Sevier<\/a> of UK water treatment firm Strengite presented one idea at the Arctic Repair<\/a> conference in Cambridge, UK, this week. They say that just 35 sea tugboats could be used to pull underwater parachutes, each about the size of half a football pitch, to move enough water to maintain the current. \u201cYou can have that very large effect with a very small intervention of energy and equipment,\u201d says Haszeldine.<\/p>\n The parachutes \u2013 similar in design to existing sea anchors, which are used to stabilise vessels in inclement weather \u2013 would help to propel the water flowing along the surface of the ocean. Each one would feature a hole with a 12-metre diameter in its centre to allow marine life to escape.<\/p>\n Drones, shipping tankers, tugboats or wind kites could be used to drag the parachutes, operating 365 days a year on a rotating-shift basis. \u201cIt\u2019s a small but continuous intervention,\u201d says Haszeldine.<\/p>\n Sevier described the idea as a \u201cHail Mary\u201d to prevent the catastrophic consequences of an AMOC collapse. \u201cThis is about buying time,\u201d he argues, for the world to cut emissions enough to stabilise global temperatures at a safe level.<\/p>\n However, the idea has been met with scepticism from leading AMOC researchers. Ren\u00e9 van Westen<\/a> at Utrecht University in the Netherlands points out that differences in water density between cold, salty water and warm, fresher water are key to the downwelling and upwelling motion that sustains the AMOC.<\/p>\n \u201cIf [this idea is] possible, they can only maintain the surface layer using the overhead winds,\u201d says van Westen. \u201cThe ocean density differences are far more important for the AMOC and hence, I\u2019m not convinced that this can sustain the AMOC.\u201d<\/p>\n