• Question: Is there a way to stop the ice melting because of climate change

    Asked by anon-259141 on 22 Sep 2020.
    • Photo: Josh Wolstenholme

      Josh Wolstenholme answered on 22 Sep 2020:

      We can do things that will reduce the ice melting, but it won’t happen overnight. Things like driving less, using more sustainable power sources, using less plastics, recycling, planting trees all contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases. At the moment, ice is melting as our climate is shifting to one that is generally warmer, but also one with much more extreme weather, especially at the hotter end. If we (everyone on the planet!) work to drastically reduce our emissions, we might be able to.

    • Photo: Ed Tunnacliffe

      Ed Tunnacliffe answered on 22 Sep 2020:

      Although it seems like an enormous problem there are all sorts of things we can do as individuals to make a difference. The main problem is that as a society we are producing too many greenhouse gases by burning fossil fuels. If each of us does a few small things to reduce the amount of fossil fuels which are burned then together we can have a massive impact! The three things that we can do as individuals to reduce our carbon footprint (the amount of fossil fuels burned due to our lifestyle choices) are to eat less meat, fly as little as possible, and have fewer children. All sorts of other things like driving cars less and buying things like food locally (rather than those coming from thousands of miles away) can also make a big difference. Here are some other ideas: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change/what-can-I-do-to-stop-climate-change. If governments, big companies and individuals all come together to make changes to our lifestyles then I am hopeful that we will be able to stop more of the world’s ice from melting, yes!

    • Photo: Hazel Jeffery

      Hazel Jeffery answered on 25 Sep 2020:

      We may need to think about more radical solutions if things get really bad. Some scientists are looking into Geoengineering – where you can make a deliberate large change to the way the Earth works. These are mainly theories right now and some of them seem very unpractical and expensive – but there is no harm in looking into these ideas! For example, you could block some of the sunlight coming to the Earth by putting fine dust high up in the atmosphere; slow down the flow of glaciers by removing the meltwater underneath that it slides on towards the ocean; or an artificial mount could be built in the ocean in front of the glacier. As the ice leaves the land it floats and sticks to the mount. In theory this alters the forces in the glacier causing the flow to slow. These suggestions could temporarily slow sea-level rise buying time to reduce our emissions.

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