51¶¯Âþ

William Carpenter of Vail, Colorado, is worried that the Earth’s axis is
shifting, and wants to do something about it (WO 01/79613). The shift, he says,
is the result of mining fossil fuels over the past century: this has led to
significant local mass losses, while the fuels’ combustion products are spread
uniformly throughout the atmosphere. In the same way, irrigation schemes can
shift mass from lakes and rivers into the open sea. Carpenter’s patented
solution is simple to describe, but far harder to implement. Salt water is
pumped from the sea, and injected into the underground cavities left behind by
mining, putting mass back where it belongs while removing excess irrigation
water from the sea.