Minenchew is among researchers looking for potential plans to alter the future of glaciers. Strategies that are proposed by groups around the world include building physical support to support them and install mass curtains to delay the flow of warm water that accelerates fusion. Another approach, which will be the focus of Arête, is called basal intervention. Basically it implies drilling holes in the glaciers, which would allow water to flow under the ice is pumped and reduce, luckily, slowing down.
If you have questions about how all this would work, you are not alone. These are almost inconceivably huge engineering projects, they would be expensive and face legal and ethical questions. No one really possesses Antarctica, and is governed by a great treaty, how could we decide whether to advance with these projects?
Then there is the question of possible side effects. Just look Recent news of the Arctic Ice project, which was investigating how to slow down the fusion of sea ice covering it with substances designed to reflect sunlight. (Sea ice is different from glaciers, but some of the key problems are the same).
One of the largest field experiments of the project involved the spread of small silica accounts, something like sand, more than 45,000 square feet of ice in Alaska. But after new research revealed that the materials could be altering the food chains, the organization announced that it is concluding its research and reduction of operations.
Cutting our greenhouse gas emissions to stop climate change at the source would undoubtedly be easier than the propagation of accounts on the ice, or try to stop a glacier of 74,000 square miles dry.
But we are not being so hot in cutting emissions, in fact, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere Rose faster than ever in 2024. And even if the world stopped contaminating the atmosphere with planet scourge gases today, things have already gone too far to save some of the most vulnerable glaciers.
The longer I cover climate change and face the situation in which we find ourselves, the more I understand the impulse to consider at least all options, even if it sounds like science fiction.
This article is from the spark, MIT technology reviewThe weekly climate bulletin. To receive it on your entrance tray every Wednesday, Register here.
