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The Current

Could damming the Bering Strait help save the climate?

5/7/202618 min

A new study is exploring a radical idea: building a dam across the Bering Strait. The goal is to try to stabilize a massive ocean current, which helps regulate the planet's climate and is already slowing down. CBC science reporter Nicole Mortillaro walks us through what's happening to the system, why scientists are concerned, and what a slowdown could mean for rising sea levels to shifting weather and where people can live. Then, climate researcher Jelle Soons explains the thinking behind the dam. It's a proof of concept, not a real-world plan, and one that comes with significant risks and unknowns.

Clips

First thing we must do
Ridiculous ideas, ridiculous reality
Worst-case AMOC consequences
Geoengineering risks and limits
The root cause is us
Back-of-envelope mega-dam
Local costs of a global fix
Cooling Europe, not an ice age

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 00:00

    All your favorite CBC podcasts are now available on YouTube. The best in award-winning true crime investigations, hilarious comedies, vibrant pop culture conversations, and even more audio series are all available on CBC Podcasts YouTube channel. You'll also find exclusive video-first episodes, YouTube Shorts, and behind-the-scenes content from our hosts and producers that you can't find anywhere else. So if YouTube is your go-to source for podcasts, just search CBC Podcasts and hit subscribe, and you'll never miss the latest update.

  2. Nicole Mortillaro· Guest0:28

    [upbeat music] This is a CBC podcast.

  3. Matt Galloway· Host0:32

    Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is The Current podcast. [drum beats] Well, I think it's happening. [drum beats] If we don't act now, it's going to be too late. [drum beats] I'm afraid that time has come and gone, my friend.

  4. Jelle Soons· Guest0:48

    What can we do?

  5. Matt Galloway· Host0:49

    Save as many as you can. [ship crashes] [people scream] Goodness. That is the trailer from the 2004 movie The Day After Tomorrow. That film depicts a world in which key ocean currents suddenly collapse, leading to catastrophic climate change in just a few days. The film is fiction, so it, it gets all sorts of things wrong, but the premise is based on a real thing and real science, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, basically a conveyor belt of currents that moves warm water northward. It's known as AMOC. It's part of what gives Europe its milder climate, and it's weakening in recent decades. Scientists are worried that climate change could lead it to slow significantly

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