Out of curiosity, I checked what the air pressure would be in a drained Mediterranean, since the article claimed it would be oppressively high. The average depth of the Mediterranean is 1.5km [1] which is less than 2.0km which would be a pressure of 130.069kPa vs 101.312kPa at sea level [2]. This seems fine?

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_Sea [2]: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/air-pressure-below-sea...