Tag: Antarctica

Could Artificial Snow Help Antarctica?

What can be done to stop Antarctica’s ice sheets from disintegrating and causing a huge rise in global sea levels? A trio of scientists have simulated a radical geoengineering project to dump 7.4 trillion tons of snow on Antarctica, suggesting it could stop runaway instability in the glaciers.

Recent studies have shown warmer ocean water is being pushed toward the colossal West Antarctic ice sheet, destabilizing it and speeding up the decline of its huge glaciers. The threat of these huge ice deposits falling into the ocean is immense and the overall effect of their decline has been calculated to eventually raise sea levels by approximately 10 feet (3 meters) or more, endangering cities like New York.

“The real concern is that many of these glaciers have a reverse bed slope, meaning that as they retreat it exposes deeper and thicker ice to the ocean,” explains Sue Cook, a glaciologist at the University of Tasmania. “That is a very unstable position, and causes a positive feedback effect which accelerates the retreat (and hence contribution to sea level rise).”

The new study, just published in the journal Science Advances, proposes a drastic, decades-long geoengineering project that would pump huge amounts of ocean water to the ice sheet, adding 7,400 gigatons (7.4 trillion tons) of “artificial snowfall” and reversing the decline. Simulating the current effects on Antarctica’s ice sheets and the changes they experience with increasing snowfall, the researchers were able to map out a process that could potentially halt the ice loss.

Their suggestion would be an incredibly expensive undertaking and include immense technical challenges. The authors say it would present an “unprecedented effort for humankind.” Mostly, the problem lies in pumping the water out of the ocean, which requires an enormous amount of energy. The study suggests constructing a series of 12,000 wind turbines to enable this process to take place and then pumping artificial snow into two glaciers on the West Antarctic coast. The team suggest that activity would result in a 2 to 5 centimeter drop in sea level but the added weight of artificial snow falling on the surface would shore up the glaciers, improving their stability.

The larger effects of such a scheme are yet to be ironed out. What are the lasting effects on the Antarctic ecosystem and what kind of knock-on effects would we see in ocean currents across the world? We just don’t have answers to those questions right now.

What we do know is the Earth’s current default state: Burning fossil fuels and pumping tons of carbon into the atmosphere, warming the planet and causing sweeping changes like threatening a million species with extinction or, you know, the ice sheets melting. Considering the possibility of salvation in artificial Antarctic snow might be jumping a little far ahead.

“Even if a geoengineering project such as this were possible, it certainly shouldn’t detract from the other urgent action which is required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Cook notes.

Climate Change Visible Worldwide

From the drunken forests of Alaska, to the vanishing glaciers of Glacier National Park, to the bleaching of coral reefs in the Florida Keys, climate change is impacting our world.

The drunken forests are caused by softening of the permafrost which leads to tilting of the trees. Rising temperatures are threatening the glaciers and warming waters re causing a shift in the composition of oceans that has bleached out color in the reefs.

“There’s more carbon in the water,” explains Mike Gunter Jr. “Some corals are more resilient than others. You’ll see parts of a reef that look really good,” but in others, change is noticeable.

Gunter, a professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. has written a new book, “Tales of an Ecotourist: What Travel to Wild Places Can Teach Us About Climate Change.”

El Nino, a cyclical pattern of Pacific storms caused by warm water, has become stronger in recent years, researchers say. That has affected Ecuador’s famed Galapagos Islands known for bird, reptile and sea life.

The lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan, is shrinking, Gunter reports. In the past 40 years, the salt-laden sea has diminished by a third and dropped 80 feet. Much of the change is due to increased use of water from the Jordan River for irrigation.

The flooding which has long plagued the canal city of Venice, Italy, has intensified in recent years. Some areas are regularly inundated at peak high tides. The city is developing plans to build flood walls and other barriers to keep the sea at bay.

The types of species found at Acadia National Park, Maine, is shifting. The area’s lobster population is predicted to migrate north in search of cooler waters, as will the whales that pass by offshore.

In Antarctica, gentoo penguins thrive because they build pebble nests on shorelines newly exposed by melting ice. On the other hand, adelle penguins are having trouble because they fish from floating sea ice, which is less plentiful.

The south-central Kansas town of Greensburg is an environmental survivor, Gunter says. It was nearly destroyed by a 2007 tornado but has been rebuilt as one of the most eco-conscious places in the world. It was the first U.S. city to fully adopt LED street lights, and it gets 100% of its power from renewable energy. It “has rebuilt itself stronger than before,” Gunter notes.