This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Scientists are working on an unusual plan to prevent Antarctic glaciers from melting. They want to build a set of giant underwater curtains in front of ice sheets to protect them from being eroded by warm sea water.
Ice in polar regions is now disappearing at record rates as global warming intensifies, and urgent action is needed to slow down this loss, the international group of scientists has warned.
Their proposed solution is the construction of a 62-mile-long (100 km) curtain that would be moored to the bed of the Amundsen Sea. It would rise by about 656 feet (200 meters) from the ocean floor and would partially restrict the inflow of relatively warm water that laps at the bases of coastal Antarctic glaciers and undermines them.
The Seabed Curtain project, if implemented, would be one of the biggest geo-engineering programmes ever under... Read more
