KIMBERLY LIM AND LAUREN ONG Today Online 28 Jun 19;
SINGAPORE — With the West Antarctic ice sheet starting to melt, which can lead to a rise in sea levels, a team of researchers has come up with a radical proposal: To artificially create snow to thicken up the ice sheet.
The team proposed using over 12,000 wind turbines to pump cold water from the sea onto the surface to create snow, which then becomes part of the ice sheet.
The study, released on Wednesday (July 17), was led by a professor from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, Adam Levermann, who told Reuters: “We are already at a point of no return if we don’t do anything.”
However, the team cautioned that “the practical realisation of elevating and distributing the ocean water would mean an unprecedented effort for humankind in one of the harshest environments of the planet”.
TODAY spoke to several experts to find out how feasible the proposal is.
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE WEST ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET?
An ice sheet is a mass of glacial land ice. The Antarctic ice sheet is one of two polar ice caps on Earth, with the other one being in Greenland in the North Pole.
The ice sheet carries frozen water and covers about 98 per cent of the Antarctic continent. There are concerns that if all of it melts, sea levels could rise by about 6m.
While most parts of Antarctica have not been drastically affected by warming, the Antarctic Peninsula, which lies at the north of the continent, has warmed by 2.5°C since 1950.
As a gauge, a 0.5°C increase in global temperatures could mean a 10cm increase in sea levels, according to a Vox report.
The study stated that the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet has started in a “self-sustaining ice discharge”. The associated sea level rise of more than 3m can lead to a serious challenge to highly populated areas, including metropolitan cities like Shanghai, New York City and Tokyo, it added.
IS THIS PLAN FEASIBLE?
Experts whom TODAY spoke to said that while the study raised some interesting points, they raised doubts about the practicality of the proposal to artificially create snow.
Associate Professor Winston Chow of Singapore Management University, who is an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Lead Author on climate impacts on cities, said that the idea is a “non-starter”.
He said: “Even though the authors do not speculate on the cost of what’s required to physically engineer the modelled simulations, the proposed logistics involved for large-scale pumping, heating of water and desalination for an area the size of Costa Rica would be staggeringly expensive.”
Echoing the same sentiments, Associate Professor and Associate Chair at the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University Adam D Switzer said that there is still a long way from putting a plan like this into action.
Assoc Prof Switzer, who is also principal investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said: “It is certainly a novel idea but there are clearly many limitations and I think it is something we would need to test before it could happen.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SINGAPORE?
The implications of the melting ice sheet could be far more severe for an island city-state like Singapore, said the experts.
Assoc Prof Switzer said: “Melting of the Antarctic and Arctic ice sheets will contribute significantly to sea level rise in South-east Asia, including Singapore. Anything that addresses or limits ice sheet decay should be seriously considered.”
“In parallel we must prepare for sea level rise and shore up our coastal defences both in Singapore and throughout the region,” he added.
Assoc Prof Chow said that rising sea levels is the biggest long-term threat to Singapore’s survivability as it would be prohibitively costly in adapting to these rising levels.
Professor Erland Källén, director of the Centre for Climate Research Singapore, said: “If the ice sheet collapses it may lead to sea level rise of several metres. This would have a significant impact on Singapore.”
IMPORTANCE OF REDUCING CARBON EMISSIONS
Despite the seeming impracticality of such ideas, experts said that the situation has got to a point where ideas of this magnitude are common.
Assoc Prof Switzer said: “We need novel ideas and we need new ideas. Science and innovation only move forward through novel ideas and theories that are rigorously tested. This is an interesting idea, so it is now time to move forward, address the limitations and test it.”
Other experts believe that the study may spur more research on more ideas and solutions.
Prof Källén said: “The authors are ice-sheet specialists. To get a project like this going, infrastructure expertise is also required.
“However, it is a very interesting initial feasibility study that may trigger further interest in geo-engineering of this type. Considering the drastic implications of massive ice losses from Antarctica, it may be a first step leading to further action.”
One expert said that ideas like these reiterate the importance of reducing carbon emissions.
“The proposed method to increase snowfall is quite ludicrous. It gives people the suggestion that climate change mitigation can be effectively done by technical solutions,” said Assoc Prof Chow.
“The focus should instead be on less costly approaches as suggested by the IPCC in reducing carbon emissions, which is the main driver for climate change and sea level rise.”
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/explainer-melting-ice-sheet-and-how-rising-sea-levels-will-affect-singapore
