I’ve found once or twice over the past several years that ideas are popping up that will one day go down in history as groundbreaking, and possibly world-saving. They are the important discoveries, steps forward and goals that you pin up with those such as JFK’s manned moon mission and the advent of the internet.

And while this idea may be just short of the computer in terms of overall impact, it very well could be one of those ideas that are so extravagant, it might just work.

Two of Britain’s premiere scientists — James Lovelock and Chris Rapley — may just have come up with a way to save the world. And while some of you may shake your head at my doomsday-ing, the fact remains, global warming is doing damage to our planet.

In a "Letter to the Editor" in the latest edition of Britain’s journal Nature, the pair wrote that the installation of millions of pipes across the earth’s oceans could help in repairing the damage that we have done to the planet.

"We need a fundamental cure for the pathology of global heating," wrote Lovelock and Rapley. "Emergency treatment could come from stimulating the Earth’s capacity to cure itself."

Their proposed plan involves vertical pipes that are 100 to 200 meters deep, and 10 meters in diameter, that would pump the healthier nutrient-rich waters from well below the surface, up to mix with the barren water at the surface.

The fundamental problem is that what were normally the earth’s ways to manage the sun are now furthering the damage done. The prime example is that of the polar ice-caps, which should be reflecting sunlight back in to space but, due to the waters absorbing more warmth, are diminishing and thus exposing more water to warmth.

The method that Lovelock and Rapley are hoping to manipulate to their ends is that of using the ocean as a carbon sink, like I touched on a few weeks ago. The problem is that the top layer of the ocean, which should be full of algae and nutrients, is devoid of it. These nutrients are what help in the process of drawing carbon down to the bottom of the ocean — the carbon sink. So their disappearance is once again causing an increase in atmospheric carbon.

"We wondered if we could restore algal growth with its capacity to draw down carbon dioxide and to emit dimethyl sulphide, the precursor of clouds."

Clouds have a very similar to the function to that of the polar ice-caps, as they too reflect the sun’s rays back in to space. The lack of dimethyl sulphide in the oceans has diminished the amount of clouds that are regularly created.

"We wanted to use this approach to illustrate the value of action to halt climate change that was based on the recognition of the Earth as a self regulating system at present in a state of failure," Lovelock said.

Their plan to give the planet a helping hand in its processes has both merit and scientific backing.

They want to start off small, too, hoping to run a small-scale test with a tropical island and a coral reef. From there, if the plan worked, they could then possibly extend their field of impact to, say, the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, such an expansion would require an additional 10,000 to 100,000 pipes at least a hundred meters long.

"With average wave height, one metre, each pipe moves about five tons of water per second — this might be enough to change the surface sufficiently for algal growth in a few years," Lovelock explained.

This sort of plan would no doubt be a welcome relief for the smaller countries, especially those who are classified as an island. At Monday’s United Nations high-level event on climate change, leaders from attendant developing and small island nations were given five minutes each to make statements to the council.

"It is an irony that the least-developed countries and small island states, which are the least responsible for the climate change, are the worst affected," said Sahana Pradhan, Nepal’s minister of foreign affairs. "Industrialized nations have a special obligation to mitigation," she added.

The small island countries that aren’t New Zealand and Australia, and the developing countries across the world, have very little ability to deal with such problems like global warming, and any attempt often comes at the expense of their populations safety and/or health. Such a plan may very well have the political backing of both industrialized and developing nations, and the scientific ability to work.

Whether my theorizing comes to fruition or not is not really for any of us to say, but maybe only to hope. But it is clear that global warming — its effects and precursors — are becoming more and more the center of popular focus.

A recent BBC poll has found that 79% of people believe that human activity causes global warming. Some 22,182 people in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Turkey and the United States were interviewed.

9 out of 10 people believe action is necessary, with 65% choosing the strongest position, "It is necessary to take major steps starting very soon." One of the questions asked — which received a 73% favorability in all but two countries — if developing nations would cut their emissions in exchange for financial assistance and technology from developed countries.

Now whether the poll managed to capture just those who recognize the scientific consensus on global climate change, and bypassed those who disagree with global warming, one can never tell. But the sample of people seems to indicate that the results are in, and people want change!

We can only say, it’s about bloody time!

Nature - Mixing the oceans proposed to reduce global warming

Physorg - Giant ocean-based pipes could curb global warming: scientists

TreeHugger - Small Island Nations "Can Only Do So Much" To Impede Climate Change

Physorg - BBC survey: Humans cause global warming

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India to Test South Atlantic Carbon Sink in 2009

Image Courtesy of JPL / NASA