I doubt any of you have heard of Herman Sorgel. History could prove that he was a man ahead of his time, however. The Farmer’s Almanac reports that Sorgel was a German engineer who had a dream. A very big dream. He was the brainchild of a proposal called the Atlantropa Plan. At the time, it would prove to be the most massive project of its time. Engineers are always competing amongst themselves by designing bigger and bigger projects. Sorgel’s 1929 plan was so big it’s even talked about today amidst a storm of controversy. Sorgel’s plan was to isolate the Mediterranean Sea by constructing two huge dams. Anyone who looks at a map knows that the Mediterranean Sea has two narrow outlets and/or inlets: the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea. What, Sorgel thought, if you constructed a massive, 18 mile-long dam at the Strait of Gibraltar, with a second dam at the Dardanelles, between the Mediterranean and Black Sea? He put his pencil to work and estimated that the dams would lower the level of the Mediterranean Sea by about 40 inches per year because of evaporation. As a result, the Mediterranean Sea could actually filled with water from the Atlantic Ocean because of evaporation? After 10 years, Sorgel estimated the Mediterranean Sea would drop by about 30 feet. It would be enough to generate hydroelectric power by letting controlled amounts of Atlantic seawater flow downhill into the basin. Furthermore, Sorgel calculated that after 100 years the level would drop by 330 feet. That would increase the potential of power production enormously and reclaim an estimated 90,000 square miles of potentially productive land from the sea. Despite public outcry, Sorgel’s plan didn’t stop there. He knew all the depths of the Mediterranean. Additional dams between Sicily and Tunisia and between Sicily and the Italian mainland would divide the Mediterranean Sea into eastern and western halves. The eastern part of the sea would be allowed to shrink for another century, reclaiming an additional 130,000 square miles of land. Europeans would have no part of this potentially devastating environmental plan and the cultural and ecological disaster it would bring. And, the worldwide economic depression of the 1930s shelved the plan forever. That is, until the 1990s when a University of Minnesota professor suggested the same dams be built but for another reason. He wanted to keep the warm, saline waters of the Mediterranean from spilling into the Atlantic and changing global currents and weather patterns enough to trigger an ice age. Today, the Mediterranean Sea is safe. The professor’s theory met with a storm of protest. Man will go to any lengths to alter his environment. No project is too big that it can’t be considered. China is relocating over a million people for a hydroelectric project in its country as we speak. Engineers looked into towing icebergs from the Antarctic Ice Shelf to Middle East countries as a supply of fresh water over four decades ago. As man’s increasing demands skyrocket, expect more and more projects to be proposed. In the future, even the mighty Mediterranean Sea may not be safe.

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