John Moore, a glaciologist and professor at the Arctic Center at the University of Lapland in Finland, believes that the only way to prevent the imminent and inevitable collapse of the giant Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is to physically stabilize its ice sheets, writes MIT Technology Review.

This can be done in a number of ways, which Moore calls "glacier geoengineering", such as damming vast underwater berms along the seashore in front of the glacier to prevent further seawater washing over the protruding floating "tongue" of the glacier. Another option is to build artificial islands on the approaches to the glacier, which hinder the access of warm waters, and, finally, drilling and fixing individual parts of the glacier. All this, however, will cost billions of dollars.

Researchers from the Canadian University of British Columbia are also considering the option of creating some curtains fixed on the seabed as an alternative. These will be floating, flexible geotextile sheets that can hold and redirect warm water. Finally, less costly approaches involve placing reflective or insulating material over parts of the glacier; building fences to contain snow that would otherwise be blown into the ocean; the use of various methods for drying the bed under the glacier, removing water from under it, which acts as a lubricant - in this way it is supposed to slow down the sliding of the glacier into the sea.

In addition to the construction of artificial pillars as part of the polar megaprojects, one can also focus on the creation of special structures that will push nature itself to restore existing glaciers. The researchers believe that if it works, it could potentially preserve critical ice sheets for several more centuries, thus buying humanity time to reduce carbon emissions and stabilize the climate.

In December last year, American scientists from the University of Oregon found that the Thwaites Glacier, called the Doomsday Glacier, could lose stability and collapse in just five years. Experts believe that the collapse of the Doomsday glacier could lead to a rise in global sea levels of 0.6 m. This will cause a kind of chain reaction: more and more ice cliffs towering above the sea will be exposed to water, break and collapse. And even if the whole world immediately stops all greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change and warm water under ice shelves, this will no longer contribute to its stabilization without additional geoengineering efforts.

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