As of: March 7, 2024, 7:16 p.m
By: Florian Neuroth
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Curtains are now designed to keep warm ocean currents away from the melting “doomsday glacier.”
Because if the Thwaites continues to melt, it could have dire consequences.
Antarctica – He's losing weight.
Strong.
And for a long time.
The Thwaites Glacier loses around 50 billion tons of ice every year.
What might make someone who wants to lose weight happy is cause for concern when it comes to the widest glacier in western Antarctica.
According to studies, the melting ice colossus is already responsible for four percent of global sea level rise.
If it collapses completely, it could have significant consequences, which is why it is commonly referred to as the doomsday glacier.
Researchers now want to save the glacier with an adventurous idea.
As
businessinsider.com
reports, scientists are currently working on an underwater solution to the glacier problem.
According to this, an approximately 100 kilometer (62 mile) long curtain on the sea floor is supposed to prevent warm sea water from reaching the glacier.
This could slow the melting process, as warm ocean currents in oceans heated by global warming are one of the main reasons why the Thwaites Glacier is losing more and more ice.
The Thwaites Glacier (also known as the “Doomsday Glacier”) is retreating.
This can have dramatic consequences for humanity.
Researchers are working on solutions – and some have daring ideas.
© Picasa/Imago
Curtains are designed to keep warm ocean currents away from the melting “doomsday glacier” Thwaites
With curtains on the floor of the Amundsen Sea - a marginal sea off the west coast of Antarctica - a team led by glacier researcher and geoengineer John Moore wants to keep the ocean currents away from the glacier and thus give the ice shelf time to regain its thickness.
According to the report, Moore is not convinced that humanity can only save the glacier by reducing emissions in the fight against climate change.
Once the tipping point is reached, “you need these other tools in the box,” he explains his motivation.
It is not the first time that the scientist from the University of Lapland has gone public with a daring solution.
In 2018, he and a colleague published a study suggesting the construction of a wall.
Curtains are just as effective but much safer than a wall, says the researcher, according to
businessinsider.com
.
If necessary, the curtains can be removed much more easily.
Curtain for melting Thwaites Glacier costs a lot of money
The researchers are currently testing at the University of Cambridge.
They are trying to prove that the idea can work using a 91 centimeter long curtain in a tank.
Once this proof has been provided, it should first continue in the English river Cam and then in around two years in a Norwegian fjord.
The researchers want to test ever larger prototypes until the technology is ready for Antarctica.
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This could take decades – and could fail due to financing alone.
Because the idea costs a lot of money.
The report estimates the cost of the Antarctic curtains at $50 billion.
“That sounds like a lot,” says Moore, but also points out the financial burden if sea levels continue to rise.
Fortifications on the coasts alone would be estimated at 50 billion euros per year per additional meter of sea level.
To put it into perspective: If all of the ice in West Antarctica disappears, the water levels will probably rise by three meters.
One thing is clear: If humanity wants to prevent more glaciers from being declared dead and countless coasts from moving inland, solutions are needed.
Scientists around the world have addressed the problem.
The term geoengineering is used to research textile tarpaulins on glaciers, think about artificial snow on icebergs or bring artificial glaciers into play.
To save the planet, they have to get creative.
Or, as John Moore once put it, “Doing geoengineering often means thinking about the unthinkable.”
(Florian Neuroth)