Scientific Idea to Prevent Disastrous South Pole Icemelt

Dumping Trillions of Tons of Artificial Snow on the South Pole Ice Shelf

Source:  West Antarctic Ice Shelf

New Scientific Study & Novel Recommendations

International scientists have just released a study with an approach they believe could prevent a disastrous meltdown of the West Antarctic Ice Shelf at the South Pole.  The approach is novel. They want to dump 8 trillion tons of artificial snow on the ice shelf over the course of ten year.

12,000 Wind Turbines

The scientists would use 12,000 wind turbines to pump seawater up to the surface where it would be frozen into snow.  Their theory is that the artificial snow would weigh down the ice shelf enough to stop it from collapsing.  According to the co-author of the report Anders Levermann of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, "we are at the point of no return if we don't do anything."  The study was just published in the journal Science Advances.

Coastal Cities in Danger

Levermann, who is a physicist and oceanographer affiliated with Columbia University, warns that it may take more than 100 years but Hamburg, New York City, Shanghai and Hong Kong "will eventually submerge" from the sea level rise from Western Antarctica.  He and the co-authors are urging governments to try this last ditch engineering effort of artificial snow. The scientists believe that global warming has caused so much melting at the South Pole that the ice sheet is going to disintegrate.  That would cause global sea levels to rise ten feet over time.