The idea of tampering with the Earth's climate has been around for decades, and it's not just limited to modern-day discussions about geoengineering. Humanity has a long history of concocting grandiose plans to reshape the planet's environment – some of which were even more outlandish than what we're hearing today.
Take 'Atlantropa', a 1930s brainchild of German engineer Herman Sörgel, who envisioned constructing a massive dam across the Strait of Gibraltar. This audacious plan aimed to lower the Mediterranean Sea level by 200 metres, creating vast new fertile land that could be worked by African labourers and supply Europe and Africa with an abundance of hydroelectric power.
Meanwhile, in the Soviet era, climate-modifying ambitions were driven by Russia's desire to escape its harsh climate. Engineer PM Borisov proposed building a dam across the Bering Strait to raise global temperatures by a couple of degrees, specifically targeting the melting of the Arctic ice cap. Other Soviet scientists suggested excavating a 3,000 sq km section of the seabed in the Thompson-Wyville Ridge at depths exceeding a kilometre to achieve a similar warming effect – all part of the 'great Stalin plan for the transformation of nature' initiated in 1948.
The advent of atomic power in the mid-20th century sparked a wave of techno-optimism, leading to proposals involving nuclear weapons for climate engineering. In the US, Harry Wexler suggested that 10 strategically placed hydrogen bombs could melt the Arctic ice cap, ushering in an era of warmer temperatures. The Soviet Union explored using nuclear weapons to redirect rivers, but their attempts were unsuccessful – three detonations cleared a mere 700 metres of canal and released unanticipated radiation.
While many geoengineering proposals remained on paper, some did materialise, albeit on a smaller scale. In the 1990s, Russia's Project Znamya aimed to create a 'second moon' by launching reflective balloons into orbit – an idea that sparked both fascination and concern about the potential consequences of such large-scale intervention.