Could Mountain Building Be the Solution to Climate Change?

Those Scientists who actually acknowledge that climate change is, at least partly, a result of human activity have, over recent years, split into two different camps when it comes to how the problem should be addressed. The first group consists of those who believe that a large-scale change in human behaviour is necessary, for example through individuals reducing their carbon footprint, governments utilising renewable energy resources and increased levels of recycling. The second group is comprised of scientists who believe that large-scale changes in human behaviour are difficult to bring about, and who instead focus their attention on developing technological solutions to global warming, whilst accepting that humans will continue polluting, creating more and more rubbish and carbon as countries such as China and India industrialise.



This group of scientists has already produced numerous, hard-to-believe ideas for future macro-engineering projects, such as massive machines which could capture carbon in the atmosphere and bury it underground, or even giant mirrors which could be positioned in space between the earth and the sun and used to reflect some of the solar rays away from planet earth.



Support for this approach has gained ground in recent years. Indeed, the recent Copenhagen conference underlined just how difficult it will be to produce reductions in emissions in a world in which economic growth is seen as highly desirable and 200 countries at different stages of development and with different interests find it impossible to agree a common position towards the care of our biosphere. Maybe, just maybe we should give up once and for all on trying to modify peoples behaviour by creating armies of environmentally aware recyclers and instead look to technology for the solution.



Why has nothing yet been done to implement any of these macro-engineering projects? Well, the major problem has been the large costs involved, which in a period of global economic crisis has rendered their implementation impossible.



However, the good news is that a solution is at hand and that it comes from the most unlikely of sources: pre-Colombian South American technology!



Let me explain. In western Argentina, in the dry, desert-like foothills of the Andes, lies the city of Mendoza. It was founded two thousand years ago by the Incas. In the 19th century scientists were fascinated as to how the Incas could have created a city in such a dry, hostile environment. They discovered that as long ago as 500 A.D,, the Incas had already constructed a network of canals to carry water from the peaks of the Andes, towering over 5,000 metres above the city, down into the desert below. These channels meant that in the areas surrounding the city, where less than 5 inches on rain falls each year, agriculture thrives, producing high quality olive oil and vineyards stretching to the horizon which produce some of the most sought-after wines in the world. In short, the irrigation channels built by the Incas produced a land of milk and honey where otherwise there would have been a desert.



Scientists with the Argentinean government climate change action unit, having heard about the work of the ancient Incas, starting speculating. “We thought”, says Abril Pez, head scientist of the group, “that if we could construct similar, man-made peaks in dry, desert regions, that these peaks would attract rain and snow, as the Andes do above Mendoza, and that specially designed channels could carry the precipitation down to ground level, to produce high-quality conditions for agriculture”.



The group discovered that the major problem would be finding materials which could be used to construct such artificial peaks, which would need to reach at least 5,000 metres in height. “We thought long and hard” continues Abril, “before hitting on the solution. Mankind today produces so much rubbish that the landfill sites are overflowing. We just don't know where to put all the rubbish that we produce. We will use this rubbish, which previously went into landfill sites choking our towns and cities, to construct man-made mountains in desert and semi-desert areas where agriculture or cities need more precipitation, such as in Australia, the western USA, the Sahel zone in Africa and the Middle East. Engineers will build irrigation channels into these constructions and hey presto, ice, snow and rain falling onto the peaks will flow down into the deserts below, making them bloom”.



Pez’s group has already received funding from the Government’s of Western Australia and California to continue their research, and they are conducting research into suitable locations to commence building before 2020.



Buenos Aires, 1st April 2010, 8.57 am