How to save Venice, Athens, Naples, ...

If the scientific predictions about global warming are true:

The Greenland Ice Sheet covers an area just slightly smaller than Mexico with a thickness of nearly 2 miles, enough to raise global sea levels by nearly 28 feet if it all melted.

What do you do to prevent Venice from being submerged?

Stop the Atlantic Ocean from spilling into the Mediterranean by plugging the Straight of Gibraltar. It happened 6 million years ago. Might as well do it again. The gap is 1000 feet deep and ten miles across. That sounds like something within current engineering capabilities.

NOTE: We thought we were being original, but blocking the straights has already been discussed in terms of global warming. From Wikipedia:

In the event that the earth's general sea level rises significantly due to global warming, then a barrage, (i.e. a dam across the strait ) becomes an option worth study. Such a barrage would incorporate locks to pass ships, a road and rail link to connect the continents, and hydroelectric power plant to generate power from the flow which would be generated by the Mediterranean's excess evaporation.

To prevent the Mediterranean becoming inexorably saltier, a large pipe would be led from the deep part of the dam, down into the depths of the Atlantic ocean. Because of the salinity difference, the outward flow of deep Mediterranean water would not require pumping.

The costs of such a barrage would be astronomical, but the costs could be spread among the large number of countries which would be protected—including those of the Black Sea basin.

posted by Quiddity at 2/19/2006 08:00:00 PM