GeoengineeringGeoengineering polar glaciers to slow sea-level rise

Targeted geoengineering to preserve continental ice sheets deserves serious research and investment, argues an international team of researchers in journal Nature. Without intervention, by 2100 most large coastal cities will face sea levels that are more than three feet higher than they are currently.

Previous discussions of geoengineering have looked at global projects, like seeding the atmosphere with particles to reflect more sunlight. That’s what makes this focused approach more feasible, says Michael Wolovick, a postdoctoral research associate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and a co-author on the Comment. (Nature editors commission Comments, short articles by one or more experts that call for action and lay out detailed solutions for current problems.)

“Geoengineering interventions can be targeted at specific negative consequences of climate change, rather than at the entire planet,” Wolovick said.

The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica will contribute more to sea-level rise this century than any other source, so stalling the fastest flows of ice into the oceans would buy us a few centuries to deal with climate change and protect coasts, say the authors.

“There is going to be some sea-level rise in the 21st century, but most models say that the ice sheets won’t begin collapsing in earnest until the 22nd or 23rd centuries,” said Wolovick. “I believe that what happens in the 22nd or 23rd centuries matters. I want our species and our civilization to last as long as possible, and that means that we need to make plans for the long term.”