STABILISING THE CLIMATE

Climate change has been a contentious issue in the last decade or so. However, I believe you would have to have your head in the sand if you have not noticed that the climate is definitely getting hotter and severe weather events more disastrous. You would also have to have a rather low understanding of physics and the environment if you did not think that pumping millions of tonnes of climate warming CO 2 into the atmosphere is having no effect on climate. Logic suggest quite differently.

Now whether it is humans who are vastly impacting climate change or whether it is a natural process of climate change over a period of time, of which we have plenty of geological proof, something has to be done to ensure the world remains liveable for our children.

This section may shock some people, however I think some radical geo-engineering will become necessary in the near future. One of my proposals is to completely or partially fill the Kati Thanda (Lake Eye) basin to create an inland lake / sea that already existed possibly as little as 10,000 years ago. Such a lake would raise the winter and night time temperature surrounding the lake by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius or lower the summer temperature or daytime temperature by a similar amount. Other climate benefits would include a modest impact on ocean level rise, a heat sink, a carbon sink and increased vegetation mainly to the East of the lake. This would increase available farmland as well as increase native animal habitats.

The Islands created by the lake would also provide location for native animal sanctuaries free from invasive species. It would also create holiday areas which would benefit financially from the tourism industry. New fisheries also would become available.

Indigenous tribes impacted by the lake would be given a financial interest in the benefits from the newly created lake.

The lake would be fed through a Southern Ocean inlet on the South coast of SA, using a method borrowed from hydraulic mining which would force water into a narrow inlet using the resulting pressure to raise the water to the height necessary to start filling the lake. The ocean inlet area could also use turbines to create hydro-electricity resulting in enough electricity generation to power 85,000 homes.

Additional climate initiatives would be considered such as emphasis placed on hydrogen engine research where water vapor is the only emission. Solar and wind power will receive greater funding. Other climate initiatives will be negotiated with states and alternative green energy system will be researched and considered.