With sea levels rising (8in/20cm in the past century) and global temperatures rising (about 1degC / 1.8degF in the past century), it's about time we solved the problem.

The proposal is quite simple: Build an inland sea in the middle of the biggest empty spaces you can find (Central Australia; Sahara; Southern Russia) and store water there.

Firstly, build a very large wall around the new sea.
Then pump lots of seawater into the new reservoir.
Use heat exchangers to store excess global warmth in the water.
Next, establish an aquaculture industry, to grow food.
Finally, put a roof over it all, to prevent evaporation and to reflect heat back into space. Some fresh water can be harvested from the system, using condensation.

Covered off sea levels, heating, food production, heat absorption, fresh water production.

Taking the rest of the day off now.
-- UnaBubba, Feb 11 2013

Coastal_20City_20Wastewater_20Relocation [FlyingToaster, Feb 11 2013]

Solar_20Desalination_20Aquaduct [FlyingToaster, Feb 11 2013]

Missed that one, [bigs].

None of it deals with the other issues I raised, I found.
-- UnaBubba, Feb 11 2013


Roof it with a floating membrane, with frequent anchor points to keep it stable.

Select an area that includes a place with rain and you won't have to pump water in.

Might want to seal off the bottom too to prevent losses that way.

We would probably be better off to just accept the gradual sea level rise, and allow the insurance companies to pay off people and businesses who need to move due to storm damage. The insurance companies will force moves, as they do today in flood areas, by raising rates.
-- Kansan101, Feb 11 2013


Surely we could achieve the same result, in terms of seal evil, simply by lowering the existing ocean floor by 8 inches?

I reccommend that, henceheretoforth, all fishing fleets that use those bottom-dragging nets should be obliged to dredge up a few tons of mud with every haul. Within a definite period of time, the dredging would be complete.

Obviously, we would need somewhere to dump all of the salt-rich sludge, but I'm happy to go along with [Ubie]'s suggestion to use Australia for this.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 11 2013


New Orleans USA, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, and a few low-laying Pacific islands would probably want some of the mud.
-- Kansan101, Feb 11 2013


We've already got the nuclear waste from Britain's weapons tests in the 1950s. You can have that back first, [Max].
-- UnaBubba, Feb 11 2013


//dump all of the salt-rich sludge// Could we add in all that horse contaminated Romanian meat? (I hear they'll eat anything down there - even bits of themselves)
-- xenzag, Feb 11 2013


We were discussing water scarcity problems over lunch today and I mentioned this one to a couple of engineers. Fun to see their eyes light up with the possibilities.
-- UnaBubba, Feb 15 2013



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