Terraforming the Earth

[YankeyMCC]

I just happen to be re-reading Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red/Green/Blue Mars" trilogy where terraforming Mars is a central theme and I came across this idea for "fighting" global climate change.

"Thousands of barges could save Europe from deep freeze"

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/thousands_of_barges_could_save_europe_from_deep_freeze_9961.html

(snip)
Dr. Peter Flynn, the Poole Chair in Management for Engineers in the U of A Department of Mechanical Engineering, has studied whether down-welling ocean currents can carry more dissolved carbon into the deep ocean. He learned they can't, but in the course of this research he found some evidence that the ocean currents that bring warm water to the oceans off northern Europe may be weakening.

(snip)
"The current is like an ocean conveyor belt," Flynn explained. "It starts in the north Atlantic, where down-welling, cold, arctic water flows south at the bottom of the ocean, and then warm, tropical water flows north to fill in the vacuum created by the cold water, and this warm water helps ensure a mild climate in northern Europe,"

(snip)
They envisioned more than 8,000 barges moving into the northern ocean in the fall, speeding the initial formation of sea ice by pumping a spray of water into the air, and then, once the ice is formed, pumping ocean water on top of it, trapping the salt in the ice and reaching a thickness of seven meters.
(snip)

[hatrack]

1. Oh, I think we're terraforming just fine as things stand already

Of course, it won't be much of a place to live by the time we're done . . .

[YankeyMCC]

2. It's more like anti-terraforming we're doing now

if terraforming means making a place more habitable.

Maybe we could be said to be "Venusforming" the Earth.

[hatrack]

3. "Venaforming"? Hmmmmmm . . . .

I think you may be on to something here.