We’ve come to a point where we think of outlandish ideas like this to try to save our planet from the deadly effects of climate change. I wonder what kind of ideas we will come up soon.
What sounds like a discussion climate scientists would have after eating a bunch of pot brownies is actually the premise of a new paper out in Science Advances on Wednesday. Researchers crunched the numbers on a massive geoengineering modeling experiment to learn what it would take to shore up the most imperiled glaciers on Earth. The results focus on pumping massive amounts of artificial snow onto the surface to stabilize West Antarctica’s glaciers, an idea that would staunch sea level rise but could also have a host of unintended consequences. These types of thought experiments, while interesting to gauge all options humanity has to deal with climate change, also show how desperation could lead to some dangerous decisions by policymakers if carbon emissions aren’t cut soon.
West Antarctic is ground zero for the sea level rise crisis. The coastal glaciers hold back an ice sheet that would raise sea levels more than 10 feet if it melted entirely, but they’re being undercut by warm water . The bedrock beneath them slopes downward as you travel inland, creating an unstable situation that could lead to runaway collapse. Their eventual collapse is possible even if the world meets the Paris Agreement goals, and if that happens it would completely reshape the shorelines of the world.
Do you think this would be made into reality?
See the full story on Gizmodo.
(Image Credit: girlart39/ Pixabay)