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Even if the world immediately stops greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change and warm the waters under the ice shelves, it won’t help thicken and restore the key pillars of Thwaites, says John Moore, glaciologist and professor at the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland, Finland.
“So the only way to prevent collapse … is to physically stabilize the ice sheet,” he said.
This will require all kinds of things described as active protection, fully adapted, or Glacier Geoengineering.
Moore and others suggest potential ways people could intervene to protect key glaciers. Some of these plans involve the construction of artificial supports through polar mega-projects, or the installation of other structures that can push the natural restoration of existing structures. The basic idea is that a small amount of engineering effort at the root of the problem can significantly reduce the property damage and flood risk that essentially every coastal city and low-lying island nation will face, as well as minimize the cost of adapting projects to them.
If it works, it could preserve important ice sheets for centuries, buying time to reduce emissions and stabilize the climate, researchers say.
But there will be huge logistical, engineering, legal and financial challenges. It’s unclear how effective the intervention will be, or if it can be done before some of the largest glaciers disappear.
Redirecting warming waters
exist article and document Moore, Michael Volovik of Princeton University and others published an article in 2018 raising the possibility of protecting key glaciers, including Thwaites Glacier, through massive earthworks. These would involve transporting or excavating large amounts of material to build berms or artificial islands around or beneath major glaciers. These structures would support glaciers and ice shelves, block warm, dense layers of water at the bottom of the oceans that are melting them from below, or both.
Recently, they and Researchers Researchers affiliated with the University of British Columbia have explored a more technical concept: constructing what they call a “Submarine Anchor Curtains. “These will be buoyant, flexible sheets made of geotextile material that can block and redirect warm water.
Hopefully, this proposal is cheaper than earlier proposals and that the curtains can withstand iceberg collisions and can be removed if there are negative impacts. The researchers simulated the use of these structures around three glaciers in Greenland, as well as around Thwaites and the nearby Pine Island glaciers.
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