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To avoid a catastrophic rise in sea level due to global warming, scientists have proposed a radical new plan: build a wall. But not just any wall, the biggest wall in the world.
Michael Wolovick and John Moore of Princeton, Beijing Normal University, say an artificial wall designed to keep hot water from reaching the Antarctic glaciers would prevent a new merger. This wall would be "the greatest civil engineering projects humanity has ever attempted" and, in its most extreme design, would extend across the width of the Thwaites Glacier, between 50 and 60 miles.
The Thwaites Glacier is a huge ice mass in western Antarctica, which currently accounts for about 4% of the world's sea level rise. It is however very unstable and scientists are becoming more concerned about what would happen if it collapsed. Previous research has indicated that sea level would rise by three meters, putting at risk millions of people living on low-lying islands and coastal areas.
In their study published in the Journal of the European Union of Geosciences The cryosphere, scientists examined the possibility of using geoengineering to prevent the collapse of Thwaites Glacier. Geoengineering is the idea that we can artificially control the climate. Normally, the most extreme proposals concern the management of solar radiation, where more of the sunlight is reflected by the planet, reducing global temperatures.
However, it is feared that solar radiation management techniques will not contribute to the melting of glaciers by hot currents. As a result, Wolovick and Moore say that instead of trying to change the global climate as a whole, we could consider targeted interventions in "high leverage areas," like Thwaites.
In the study, the researchers examined a series of designs that could help retain the glacier in several scenarios. They discuss the economic feasibility and the timeframe in which such a huge project could take place.
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The most ambitious design would be an "artificial edge", constituting a "continuous barrier constructed at the front of the glacier, designed both to block the transport of hot water and to physically reinforce the floating platform. "At the base, the threshold could be artificial mounds 300 meters high or columns placed on the seabed – hot water would not be blocked, but it could help to retain the glacier, possibly helping it to repel.
As expected, computer models showed that the continuous wall would be the most effective at saving the Thwaites Glacier, but even the smallest model had a 30% success rate.
The authors note that this type of engineering project is totally unachievable at the moment – they do not expect humans to undertake such a task for a century or two. Even then, it would be an ambitious plan, not least because it would be built in one of the most challenging environments in the world. But this should not prevent scientists from planning for the long term.
"We all understand that we have an urgent professional obligation to determine how much society should know the rise in sea level and how quickly sea level rise is likely to occur. we would say that we also have to try with means that the company could protect itself against a rapid collapse of the icecap, "Wolovick said in a statement.
Peter Irvine, a Harvard University scientist who was not involved in the study and whose work focuses on climate and geoengineering, said that Wolovick and Moore's article is the only detailed proposal to stop the retreat of destabilized marine glaciers. He said Newsweek that he doubted that the wall would be possible with today's technology, but that his ideas are interesting.
"Few environments would be harder to work than under an Antarctic platform, that is, in an incredibly isolated place, with extreme weather conditions, icebergs and ice collapses. . In addition, the authors suggest that the most effective Antarctic thresholds of the dwarves are the largest earthworks ever made and they were built in much more practical places, "he said.
"I think it's an interesting scientific idea, but some marine and Antarctic engineers have to look at it to determine if it's feasible remotely, even for much smaller glaciers."
Wolovick and Moore also say reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the best way to mitigate future climate change. "The more carbon we emit, the less likely it is that the ice sheets will survive in the long term at a level close to their current level," Wolovick said.
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