Scientists have underlined the importance to seriously consider geoengineering projects to protect glaciers or face disastrous sea level rise, The Guardian reported.
Accprding to the report, Antarctica and Greenland’s ice sheets are melting fast and even if carbon emissions reduced and global heating limited to 2C, it is not clear if that will be enough to prevent ice sheet collapse.
The experts warned that without intervention sea level will rise as much as a metre by 2100, obliterating low-lying cities and displacing millions of people, explaining that much of that sea level rise will come from the melting of just a handful of glaciers, such as Thwaites and Pine Island in the Amundsen Sea.
They suggest erecting curtains around the toes of these glaciers (to protect them from the relatively warm water lapping at their base) or drilling holes through the glaciers to drain the ice sheet streams could significantly slow the melt.
The report, based on a meeting at the European Geosciences Union conference in April 2024, confirms that reducinh carbon emissions must remain the priority but calls for serious research into glacier geoengineering now.
