It is expected that nearly half of the ice rivers of the Earth will disappear by 2100, even if the unlikely goal is to be increasingly fulfilled by reducing global warming to 1.5 ° C above pre -industry levels1. Indeed, Venezuela and Slovenia lost all ice rivers – the first country to do so in the modern era.
To draw attention to these losses and highlight the crucial part of the ice, snow and ice in the climate system, the United Nations declared in 2025 as the international year for the preservation of glaciers. However, there is a remarkable small consensus on how to save the iceberg.
Thirty years ago, when the United Nations Convention on Climate Change entered, the answer was clear: reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Today, as carbon emissions continue to rise, the mitigation alone appears to be insufficient. Technological interventions began to explore – including making the ice reflective using small glass beads, enhancing snowfall through cloud sowing and ice rivers in protective films and geographical reproduction2.
Greenland Ice breaks faster than expected
However, the ice rivers are much more than frozen ice. Just like oceans, rainforests, iceotilities and ice boards teeming with life3–5. The iceberg is mainly consisting of microorganisms, and it is only visible to the human eye during colored algae flowers. This microscopic ecosystem contains organs of all three areas of life – Archaea, bacteria and nuclei depth.
These microbes are out of typical, as they contain genes that adapt to severe nutrients, rare and fluctuation between intense sunlight in summer and snow -covered in winter. For example, it appears that some microorganisms in the tampering ice rivers make antibiotics so that they can5. These genetic capabilities have caused an interest in antibiotics for antimicrobials and enzymes that can work at low temperatures6.
It also turned out that icy microbes accumulate and store heavy metals and other environmental pollutants, which slows down the release of these pollutants. Consequently, disruption in iceberg societies can reduce its effectiveness as polluted interim stores, with effects on the environment in another place in the environment.
Since the momentum is based on technical interventions to slow the melting of the ice Ice, and stops and even reverse, we discuss that this must include the complexity of the iceberg that they aim to preserve. Here, we summarize the types of intervention that are seriously considered, how to evaluate their impact and urgently required organizational guards.
Slapping ice melting
Local interventions to preserve mountainous ice rivers almost decrease into two categories: those that aim to keep the current ice and those that enhance the formation of fresh ice2. So far, they all have great consequences, but it is bad lesson, on life and inside. Dangerous academic investigations must start before these technologies are widely adopted.
For example, the researchers tested the effect of the deployment of hollow microscope, made of silica-based glass and diameter 10-200 ومر m, on a lake ice in the Arctic7. The intervention increased the reflection of the surface and thus the delay of melting. However, by preventing sunlight, such algae and blue bacteria can harm in the ice.
The geographical cracking helped in this small iceberg in Switzerland to slow down.Credit: Matthias House
Another way on Dagu Glacier is tried in China: A thin film of cellulose acetate – artificial material made of wooden pulp is published8 – On ice. This material was initially designed to keep frozen food, and reduces the sun’s rays and thus reduces melting8. However, its ability to alleviate the loss of ice block by measures greater than a few square meters, and its long -term sustainability and its environmental effects, has not yet been evaluated.
The separation of the ice rivers in the geographical cracking (polypropylene, for example) can reduce the melting of the ice by 50-70 % per year9. These artificial blankets are already used commercially – for example, to save the artificial ice cave in Rhône Glacier in Switzerland. Although the installation of ice in a substance -like substance slows down slow melting, it prevents sunlight and nutrients.
Moreover, the geological reflection based on the exact plastic polymers in the environment-first in the ice and then in the ecosystems. On the Austrian river where geological reproduction was used nearly two decades ago, up to 3 kilometers of fine plastic fibers per square meter of ice. Small invertebrates consumes this delicate plastic, which facilitates these molecules to enter the food chain. The larger fiber can also cut animals, which reflects many problems associated with marine plastic waste.
Climate change reveals the secrets of our ancestors hidden in the ice
Approvals aimed at creating a new ice have negative aspects. For example, in one small experience, researchers managed to fall from the MUZ Taw in the Sawir mountains that extend over the borders of Kazakhstan and China10. However, assessing the efficiency of this intervention is difficult due to the difficulties in targeting its use and reducing environmental costs.
Pumping water on the ice and the use of snow guns was also suggested. These interventions were tried on the Mursratsch ice in Switzerland11. The test results show that they work in principle. However, its implementation in the real world has been abandoned due to the high cost, water resources lack and lack of detailed environmental assessments.
Technical interventions on ice rivers in some respects reminiscent of widespread geological engineering proposals, such as spraying particles in the upper atmosphere and storing and storing carbon. However, icy interventions are almost local in application and effects if implementation is strong. Although some of the border issues may arise, they involve fewer ethical challenges and governance in general, which makes them more attractive to early adoption as the harmful effects of climate change.
However, the environmental consequences of these interventions have barely received any attention from governments and policy makers. Moreover, it is not clear what effects these strategies will cause on estuaries, especially on providing drinking water.
Ice rivers can be non -hospitable places to search and difficult to access them.Credit
The available interventions are currently expensive and difficult to expand, making them only suitable for the most valuable sites. It is difficult to reach many glaciers. The interventions need to be applied or renewed over and over again. The researchers estimated the price of up to $ 1.6 billion if all ice rivers in Switzerland alone have been length12.
It is concerned that many early attempts to protect iceotens are driven by commercial interests, as incentives to ignore environmental concerns are high.