This cold winter can cause cognitive dissonance in a certain proportion of people. Indeed, why call for the ditching of fossil fuels when you need to heat your homes and apartments? However, we still have no reason to assert that plans for the total decarbonization of the economy will be revised in the near future. Most likely, the large-scale transition to RES will continue in accordance with the approved schedules. However, some 50-60 years ago the mood was completely different (to which we have already repeatedly drawn attention). Now it is difficult to imagine anything like that, but not later, as in the 1960s, our scientists came up with a proposal to change the planet's climate in the direction of warming .
Today, against the background of heated debates that are being conducted in our country by opponents and supporters of global warming, it would be interesting to recall one of such projects proposed by the Soviet geographer and engineer Pyotr Borisov . He outlined his ideas in detail in the book "Can a Man Change the Climate", published by the Nauka Publishing House in 1970.
It is important to emphasize that this book was written in those years during which there was a period of cold snap, which allegedly began in the second half of the 1940s (after a short period of warming). Until the end of the 1970s, among climatologists (which the famous geophysicist-climatologist Mikhail Budyko also pointed out in his writings), it was customary to build models of a further decrease in global temperature. The topic of global warming was not yet in such a trend as it is today. From the point of view of Peter Borisov, the cooling of the planet is not good for humanity. Conversely, the trend towards warming is unambiguously assessed by him as “climate improvement”.
Speaking about the causes of climate change, he draws attention to such a factor as the temperature of ocean waters. From his point of view, the rise in the temperature of the surface waters of the World Ocean is the main cause of warming on land. He reminds us that the waters of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean are of fundamental importance for us. “Therefore, of all possible methods of artificial climate change,“ the most effective should be considered the melting of the ice in the Arctic, ”the author believes.The only question is how much a person can do. And most importantly, it is necessary to understand the nature of the ice itself: are they a relict, or are they capable of recovery? The author leans towards the second point of view. It follows that a one-time destruction of the Arctic ice will not be enough to sustainably improve the climate. It is necessary, according to him, to "extinguish the forces" responsible for the re-formation of ice. For these purposes, he believes, it is necessary to find a huge amount of heat. And you can find it in the World Ocean and in its warm currents.
Note that for those times, such proposals were not a novelty, since they tried to solve similar problems not only in our country, but also in the United States, and even in Europe. You can find at least a dozen projects of this kind, though not implemented for various reasons, primarily economic.
In 1912, the American industrialist Carroll Riker proposed to fence off the cold Labrador Current from the warm Gulf Stream, which would automatically improve the climate of North America, saving Canada from constant, dense fogs, and Europe turned into a continuous zone of the tropics.
The essence of Peter Borisov's plan was to create “ direct flow "of warm Atlantic waters through the Arctic basin to the Pacific Ocean... At the same time, making sure that these waters are not subjected to destructive cooling by polar waters. In other words, it was necessary to give the northern branch of the Gulf Stream a "green lane" for the passage to the pole and connect these waters with the Pacific Ocean.
The calculation was made on the fact that as the Arctic warms, they will eventually merge with the warm waters of the northern extension of the Kuroshio. In real conditions, these waters collide with an oncoming - colder and less saline - Pacific current and turn back, returning back to the Atlantic already fairly cooled. According to the author, it is necessary to provide a through passage of warm and salty Atlantic waters through the Arctic to the Pacific Ocean, while blocking cold waters from the Pacific Ocean.
The practical implementation of the project boiled down to the following. First of all, it was necessary to remove the indicated obstacle on the way of the warm current - the oncoming cold stream penetrating here through the Bering Strait. Hence the idea of blocking the Bering Strait with a dam naturally suggested itself . The dam was conceived as a gigantic hydrotechnical structure, since it was supposed to artificially, with the help of pumping units, transfer water from the Arctic to the Pacific Ocean through it... The author proposed to build a dam from large reinforced concrete blocks manufactured at special enterprises in warm latitudes and delivered to the construction site on special ships. The pumping units, made in the form of monoblocks, were to be built into the dam body itself. The implementation of this part of the project took 8-10 years.
In terms of power supply, the author did not see any particular problems. First, he lived in the “atomic” era and fully assumed that nuclear power plants could start operating here since the 1980s. In addition, the northern regions are rich in fossil fuels (including coal), so nothing prevented the construction of large power units that run on natural gas or coal. There were no problems with the transportation of electricity either. In other words, pumping systems could be operated from a variety of sources.
As for the economic component, according to preliminary calculations, the construction of such a hydroelectric complex would have cost the state 24 billion rubles at that time. The cost included not only the construction of the dam and the installation of equipment, but also the creation of all related infrastructure, including the construction of two small towns (50 thousand inhabitants in each), two seaports and two airports, as well as power plants. Moreover, the author did not consider such an "estimate" of costs to be too low, citing examples of other grandiose construction projects as proof.
The question is, what is the point of such costs? I think Siberians will be pleased to know that in accordance with the goals of the project, the climate in the region of Novosibirsk or Omsk should soften to the level of climatic conditions in Kharkov or Voronezh. Moreover, Pyotr Borisov was confident that his project would have a beneficial effect not only in Siberia, but also on the entire planet.
In our time, of course, any proposals of this kind will be regarded as a dangerous heresy, distracting humanity from solving the opposite problem. However, let's be honest with ourselves - Siberians are much more pleased to hear about the destruction of polar ice than about the cooling of the planet. And in this regard, an appeal to the heritage of domestic scientific and technical thought is capable of making some adjustments in terms of understanding the current realities. I suppose that every cold winter we will be more and more persistently and persistently visited by the same sacramental question: are the fierce fighters against global warming leading us there?