26. That Time the Russians Wanted to Melt the Arctic
Melting polar ice is a major worry today, what with the resulting rising sea levels threatening low-lying coastal plains where billions live. In the 1950s, however, before most people had heard of “global warming” or understood its ramifications, things were different. Back then, polar ice was seen not as something worth preserving, but as something that should be gotten rid of. That view was especially popular in the USSR, much of which lay under permafrost that held up many economic development plans. So the authorities explored plans to warm up the country, including an extreme plan to melt the Arctic ice cap.
Soviet scientist, Petr Mikhailovich Borisov, proposed a 55-mile-dam across the Bering Strait between the Soviet Far East and Alaska. It would block cold Pacific Ocean currents from reaching the Arctic, while allowing the Atlantic Ocean’s warm Gulf Stream currents to circulate more freely. That would gradually melt the Arctic ice cap, until the North Pole was ice-free. Borisov’s government found the concept intriguing. The idea even made waves in the West, where JFK called it “certainly worth exploring“. However, the plan went nowhere. Not because of environmental concerns, but cost concerns, and the difficulty of securing US-Soviet to carry out such an ambitious geoengineering project.