Ice Flows

We need more glaciers, or something:

“Everyone who is a scientist hopes that we don’t have to do this research,” said Douglas MacAyeal, a professor of geophysical sciences and co-author of the paper. “But we also know that if we don’t think about it, we could be missing an opportunity to help the world in the future.” The white paper emerged out of two conferences held on geoengineering—deliberate interventions to alter the planet’s climate—at Chicago and Stanford University. The conferences were organized by the newly formed Climate Systems Engineering initiative at UChicago, which “seeks to understand the benefits, risks, and governance of technologies that might reduce the impacts of accumulated greenhouse gases,” according to a press release. The scientists at the conferences advocated for two major types of geoengineering to be investigated. The first type consists of “curtains” moored on the seabed to prevent warm water from undermining ice shelves. The biggest threat to ice sheets is not warm air, but warm water, The second type involves attempts to reduce the flow of meltwater streams that run off ice sheets. This could be achieved, for example, by drilling deep into glaciers, either to drain water from the glacier bed and prevent it from affecting the glacier, or to try and freeze the glacier bed artificially. The report notes that both approaches are totally untested and their advantages and disadvantages, including potentially environmental disruption, are unclear.

But there will be a lot of hot air involved...