Translated material
Scientists want to save the melting “Doomsday Glacier”
Because of research into the accelerating melting of the Thwaites Glacier, or “Doomsday Glacier,” scientists are increasingly talking about glacial geoengineering and proposing the development of a curtain attached to the seafloor that would partially halt the glacier's melting, at least temporarily. This is reported by the scientific journal Phys.org.
At the end of May, a study was published on the accelerated melting of the “Doomsday Glacier.” Then scientists, using X-ray images, were able to find out that warm sea water is corroding the glacier from below, at the base, thus bringing forward a “catastrophic rise in the level of the world’s oceans.” According to the magazine, because of this, scientists began to turn to unconventional and unpopular ideas, such as creating an underwater curtain to stop the melting of the glacier.
A group of glaciologists affiliated with the University of Chicago's Climate Systems Engineering Initiative released a report in July 2024 calling for greater attention to studying the potential for geoengineering glaciers due to the threat of rapid melting. One of the study's co-authors, John Moore, a professor at the Arctic Center at the University of Lapland, said the curtain needs to be developed as soon as possible because "it will be 15 to 30 years before there is another way to stop [the glacier from melting]."
The view that glacial geoengineering would be an "incredibly useful" way to stop the melting of the Doomsday Glacier is shared by climate economist at the Columbia School of Climate Gernot Wagner.
“Glacial geoengineering seems to be the only way to more or less guarantee that we will get past some of the tipping points [associated with melting ice] in the Antarctic Ice Sheet and Arctic ice [in general],” Wagner said.
Many glaciologists and climate scientists disagree with this approach, since geoengineering could greatly interfere with reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere, which contribute to the melting of ice in the Arctic and Antarctica, as such measures “begin to be perceived as a panacea.” Wagner is also confident in this, but believes that “geoengineering is not a solution, but just a painkiller” that can provide time to truly solve climate problems.
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