Science is an art of exploration. The dedication of the explorers is sometimes directed by other discoveries, a chance encounter or simply just the pure serendipity of a crazy idea.

Consider Peter Flynn when he began thinking about the Gulf Stream which carries warm water into the North Atlantic and returns cold water into the southern reaches of the ocean. The transfer of water operates like a continual pump.


What concerned Flynn, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Calgary, about the Gulf Stream was the melting ice cap in the Arctic regions.

Professor Flynn linked the two ocean systems together and he saw a potential problem.

If too much melted Arctic fresh water was added to the equation it could disrupt the amount of salt that sank to the bottom of the north Atlantic, an essential part of the process to the keep the Gulf Stream’s natural pump operating.

If this happened on a large scale the result, according to Flynn, could have long reaching effects including the possibility of throwing Europe into a new ice age.

To prevent this Flynn proposes that some 8 thousand platforms be built which would spray salt sea water onto the ice cap. The water would freeze in winter weather and thaw during the summer as salt water. His thought was to help preserve the existing ice cap by adding more ice from the sea and as an added advantage protecting the Gulf Stream.

Since the Arctic runoff in the summer months would be salt water the integrity of the Gulf Stream would be preserved.

These ideas are relegated to an area of science referred to as eco-engineering or eco-hacking, and while the ideas are grand concepts there are serious concerns about a basic tenet of science, any action prompts a reaction.

The question about any major engineering change of the planet’s ecology always promotes a discussion of what else can happen.

What effect could the leakage of salt water have on the delicate arctic tundra? How would marine life that depends on fresh water runoff from the ice cap fare in salt water? And more.

Science is full of sci-fi doomsday scenarios but as we continue to grapple with the lack of political or even logical direction to grapple with planetary problems some of these concepts maybe just be what we could be forced to turn to in the future.

We will be offering more of these original and radical concepts in a series “Un-boxed Science” over the next few weeks. If you have any suggestions please contact us.