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Scientists analyze whether closing the Bering Strait with a dam can prevent the end of the AMOC current. Understand the risks, costs, and feasibility of the project.
A monumental engineering proposal has returned to the center of the scientific debate to prevent an unprecedented climate disaster: the construction of a dam in the Bering Strait.
According to a study by Utrecht University, published in the journal Science Advances, closing this 82-kilometer passage between Russia and Alaska could stabilize the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).
The extreme intervention emerges as a desperate attempt to save this oceanic “engine,” which regulates global temperatures and sea levels, but is at risk of collapsing this century due to the excess of freshwater from polar ice melt.
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Why is the Bering Strait the key to the AMOC?
The logic of the intervention is based on controlling ocean salinity. Currently, the Bering Strait discharges less salty waters from the Pacific into the Arctic Ocean, which eventually migrate to the North Atlantic.
By erecting a dam in the Bering Strait, scientists intend to:
- Block freshwater: Prevent the Pacific flow from reducing the density of the North Atlantic.
- Strengthen the climate “engine”: Increase salinity around Greenland to keep the current active.
- Thermal security: Preserve the ocean’s ability to absorb heat, which reduces global warming by about 0.2 degrees.
- Coastal protection: Prevent the rapid rise of sea levels on the North American coast and extreme winters in Europe.
Although simulations show positive potential, the project’s effectiveness depends on a strict mathematical limit. Researchers have identified that the work only functions if initiated while the AMOC is still healthy.
If the system weakens by more than 16% (dropping to less than 16.4 million cubic meters per second), the effect of the structure reverses. In this “delay” scenario, building the dam in the Bering Strait could worsen the crisis.
Instead of stabilizing the climate, the blockade would increase ice formation in the Arctic and reduce evaporation, making the waters even fresher and accelerating the definitive end of the ocean current. The uncertainty about whether we have already passed this critical point makes the proposal a high-risk gamble.
Geopolitics and challenges of a global-scale project
Besides physical barriers — an average depth of 50 meters in remote and hostile waters — the biggest obstacle for the dam in the Bering Strait may be diplomatic.
Since a large part of the strait belongs to Russia, construction would require an unprecedented international agreement.
Giving a single country or coalition control over a structure that alters the global climate adds an almost insurmountable layer of geopolitical complexity.
Additionally, the environmental impacts would be severe. The physical barrier would cut essential migratory routes of whales and other marine animals, permanently transforming the ecosystems of the Pacific and the Arctic.
Although the work is technically feasible for current engineering, it would require trillions of resources and years of execution under extreme climatic conditions.
A limited solution for a bigger problem
It is important to highlight that building the dam in the Bering Strait is not a definitive cure. Even if the Pacific flow is interrupted, global warming will continue melting Greenland’s glaciers.
This melting will continue injecting fresh water into the system, threatening the AMOC through other means. Ultimately, the study serves as a warning about the severity of the current crisis.
Science is being forced to consider “walls” in the oceans because the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is not occurring at the necessary speed.
With information from Olhar Digital
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The wall will have financed itself.
20,0000 GigaWatts clean energy will pay for itself in One year.